what do people think about brian gundy's humidity recommendation ?

[Aerries]

Yea see my problem is that I have 8 ft of bearded dragon heat that sucks out the humidity along with the three other heat lamps in the room that's 9x9 so even in Florida that room can get grossly warm. Humidity in the house stays around 55-60% but in that rooms sucks it down to 35-40 depending on how much it rains.


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[artgecko]

Yea see my problem is that I have 8 ft of bearded dragon heat that sucks out the humidity along with the three other heat lamps in the room that's 9x9 so even in Florida that room can get grossly warm. Humidity in the house stays around 55-60% but in that rooms sucks it down to 35-40 depending on how much it rains.


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In that case, I'd just keep them in a tub / rack setup and use a substrate that will retain some humidity without molding, like reptichip / prococo. The substrate doesn't have to be wet, but provide a good sized water bowl in the setup and see what you get.

[cchardwick]

That's really interesting, I've never heard of not worrying about the humidity. I'd really like to know what his ambient humidity in his house is, I'm surprised he never even measured it? I can't seem to find his address, where is he located? I'd like to know what the ambient humidity is where he lives. Personally I'd like to try a newspaper substrate with no humidity too if I can pull it off. Great post, thanks for sharing!

[Aerries]

In that case, I'd just keep them in a tub / rack setup and use a substrate that will retain some humidity without molding, like reptichip / prococo. The substrate doesn't have to be wet, but provide a good sized water bowl in the setup and see what you get.

Sadly I'm not fond of the tub/rack setup, the room for us is designed for a more visual encounter, I have my niece and nephew over a bit and they love seeing all the reptiles and I honestly don't mind the small amount of extra care I have to have for humidity.


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[Craiga 01453]

Sadly I'm not fond of the tub/rack setup, the room for us is designed for a more visual encounter, I have my niece and nephew over a bit and they love seeing all the reptiles and I honestly don't mind the small amount of extra care I have to have for humidity.


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I'm with you on this one. I love display setups and personally wouldn't want my animals in racks where I couldn't enjoy them as much visually. I'm willing to put in the work to maintain proper husbandry.
I really want to get going on a stackable PVC enclosure setup though. I want to grow my reptile family without sacrificing visual appeal and without having glass enclosures EVERYWHERE in my house

[Aerries]

I'm with you on this one. I love display setups and personally wouldn't want my animals in racks where I couldn't enjoy them as much visually. I'm willing to put in the work to maintain proper husbandry.
I really want to get going on a stackable PVC enclosure setup though. I want to grow my reptile family without sacrificing visual appeal and without having glass enclosures EVERYWHERE in my house

lol I hear ya, I have 20+ feet of glass enclosures 6 total enclosures in one room 🤣 three BP a RTB and two dragons


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[Craiga 01453]

lol I hear ya, I have 20+ feet of glass enclosures 6 total enclosures in one room 🤣 three BP a RTB and two dragons


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Hahahaha, right? I have glass everywhere too. Snakes, Skink, fish. Plus the ferret enclosure (6'x6'x4' closet I turned into their enclosure). So hoping PVC will allow me to consolidate and grow at the same time

[distaff]

I remember watching that Brian Gundy video and found it confusing too. Northern California tends to be humid.

I've been thinking about humidity a lot recently. New Mexico is dry, and my native "dry" Sonoran Gopher and Rosy Boa have been kept in dry glass tanks, Reptichip substrate. However, in the wild, these desert snakes spend most of their time under rocky sheltered areas, near the damper ground. They (Rosy Boas excepted??) venture out mostly at night. The thing about the Trans Pecos specifically, is they really need good ventilation if they are to remain healthy long term in captivity, and if tubs are used, the tubs should be drilled on the sides. Rhodes says these snakes can and do thrive in even FL humidity; they just need good air exchange.

Back to BP's, this is likely what Brian Gundy was getting at, but he explained it in a confusing way; he said, damp air breeds bacteria. Well, damp stagnant air breeds bacteria. Also, he wasn't taking into account his own mild climate, and he wasn't addressing the many BP owners who struggle with dry stuck sheds. He just shows his own box of complete intact sheds, and says, "Don't worry about humidiy." Well, that is NOT the experience many others are having , and it's NOT helpful!

After reading Rhode's The Complete Suboc, I decided to take Rhode's advice, and offer a humid hide to the Trans Pecos Rat and my other two "dry" snakes. I chose the usual plastic "Tupperwares" that were suitable sized for each snake, cut a hole three times the snake diameter, and stuffed the thing with moist "Forest" moss. Basically standard advice for BP's in dry atmospheric conditions. My snakes do spend time in those,and the Rosy has actually stopped cruising. (I was getting concerned for her - she was testy, she wanted something, and I wasn't sure what was needed.)

So, my take on this is: when in doubt, offer a humid hide. Then, you don't have to worry so much about accurately measuring humidity.

[SDA]

I decided to take Rhode's advice, and offer a humid hide

Just a tip, might need to make sure those humid hides are only offered during shed cycles.

A lot of snakes that don't require high humidity outside of shed can develop skin conditions if they start to get "addicted" to staying in a humid hide all the time. Might not be a problem and it might be perfectly ok to keep one in the enclosure but keep an eye out if they start to stay in there all the time.

[AbsoluteApril]

Brian's video was also discussed in this thread and my response is there (I'm in the same area as Brian): https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...umidity-really