How do you maintain coconut husk humidity????

[ontariosnakelover]

Hey guys. My bad canadian winter is making it hard to control humidity for my Ball python though my boa is doing great. I just bought a brick of coconut husk to replace the aspen bedding with. I already know how to set up the husk in the beginning, however what I need to know is how to maintain it. Like I have an over head heat lamp for this specific enclosure and I'm sure it will dry out the husk. It's only 50 watts red light but it dries water pretty quickly in the glass tank screen top. I use a spray bottle to mist all my reptiles down daily but do I do that with the coconut husk? Do I spray daily or every few days? I'm not a beginner at snake keeping but I've lost a lot of equipment due to life's hardships so I don't have a humidity gauge or decent amount of money for a reliable digital one right now. Just need to know roughly how you maintain and how often you add moisture to coconut husk.

[Godzilla78]

Spray the coconut until moist, it holds water well. Get a large room humidifier, I have noticed my humidity stay up for a long time, and I only have to mist the substrate about one/week, as long as I run the 6 gallon humidifier 24/7. if I turn off the humidifier, the coco substrate dries out much quicker of course.

[cchardwick]

In all my tubs I keep my coconut husk about 1.5 to 2 inches deep. I live in a very dry climate too, when I first soak the block and expand it I find that it stays about perfect for 3-4 days then it starts to dry out. I usually spray every tub every day. If I don't spray every day and it completely dries out I'll take a gallon jug of water and shake out about a half gallon of water in an ARS 80 series tub to get it pretty moist in spots. Then I'll continue to spray daily.

Usually the top will dry out first and it will stay moist underneath, that's the perfect humidity level. Don't get too much water in it though because it can mold a bit and smell musty. I guess it's hard to explain without showing you, I'd say stick your fingers into the substrate, if it moves easily and is dry to the bottom you need to add quite a bit of water. If it has moisture and doesn't move easily I just lightly spray the top layer every day. If you open the tub and the substrate is discolored in spots and you can see the moisture in it I don't even spray that day.

[Sauzo]

Hey guys. My bad canadian winter is making it hard to control humidity for my Ball python though my boa is doing great. I just bought a brick of coconut husk to replace the aspen bedding with. I already know how to set up the husk in the beginning, however what I need to know is how to maintain it. Like I have an over head heat lamp for this specific enclosure and I'm sure it will dry out the husk. It's only 50 watts red light but it dries water pretty quickly in the glass tank screen top. I use a spray bottle to mist all my reptiles down daily but do I do that with the coconut husk? Do I spray daily or every few days? I'm not a beginner at snake keeping but I've lost a lot of equipment due to life's hardships so I don't have a humidity gauge or decent amount of money for a reliable digital one right now. Just need to know roughly how you maintain and how often you add moisture to coconut husk.

If you have to mist your cages daily to keep decent humidity, you have too much air flow. I personally prefer the chunkier coco stuff like ReptiChips. It seems to hold water better and longer. The coffee ground stuff seems to dry out really fast. In my AP T10 and T8 cages, if i put in 1/2 deep Reptichips in there, i will have humidity spiking to 100% for days.

Even with aspen, i generally only give it a good misting once or twice a week in the winter.

To answer your question, you mist the stuff whenever it dries out and the humidity drops. It will vary from cage set up to cage setup.