Humidity question

[wingnut116]

Hey all!

Next week my girlfriend and i ate cooking to pick out our first ball python. Now i've been doing a ton of research the last few weeks and have set up an enclosure and have been testing different things to get the temperature and humidity under control. The enclosure is a 10gal which we will upgrade to a 20 to 40 gal in the future as our bp progresses. The substrate im using is coconut fiber with a UTH and a thermostat is being delivered tomorrow along with a digital thermometer/ hygrometer combo. I've covered the top with plastic to trap in humidity. At the moment, I feel like I'm fighting the changing conditions of New England with the temperature differences at the moment. My main question is will the animal impact the humidity vs the empty enclosure? I've been trying to research this but i guess this isn't a typical question? Any help or input would be great. I have not finished the enclosure since i don't have and hides in there yet, as I'm not sure of the exact size our bp will start at and i may need to add a wider water bowl to assist the humidity. Also knowing the water bowl needs to be filled with purified water, is this the same type of water that needs to be sprayed in the enclosure as well or is tap water ok? Our tap water does not have any trace of ammonia or chlorine in it and we use this in our aquarium.

Thanks in advance! We're super excited to get our bp!

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[wingnut116]

Wow bad auto correct. We're looking to pick out our first ball python. Not ate cooking.



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[Coluber42]

The snake won't appreciably affect the humidity in the cage. A water bowl will help the humidity, and your snake needs one to drink from anyway. If your tap water is safe for you to drink, it's safe for your snake to drink and it's safe to spray with. The reason misting systems call for filtered or RO water or whatever is because minerals from the water would otherwise clog up the nozzles over time.

What you have to do for humidity will be a bit of a moving target in New England over the course of the year. Ultimately a larger* enclosure with deeper substrate will help keep conditions a little more stable (this means heat has to come from above; you can't use a UTH with deep substrate). You might as well be thinking about what enclosure you will ultimately upgrade to, because your snake will outgrow a 10gal tank pretty quickly.

*Ball pythons really will make use of a larger enclosure, but it has to have lots of hiding places and cover. A 55gal tank with one hide and a water bowl isn't it.

[wingnut116]

The snake won't appreciably affect the humidity in the cage. A water bowl will help the humidity, and your snake needs one to drink from anyway. If your tap water is safe for you to drink, it's safe for your snake to drink and it's safe to spray with. The reason misting systems call for filtered or RO water or whatever is because minerals from the water would otherwise clog up the nozzles over time.

What you have to do for humidity will be a bit of a moving target in New England over the course of the year. Ultimately a larger* enclosure with deeper substrate will help keep conditions a little more stable (this means heat has to come from above; you can't use a UTH with deep substrate). You might as well be thinking about what enclosure you will ultimately upgrade to, because your snake will outgrow a 10gal tank pretty quickly.

*Ball pythons really will make use of a larger enclosure, but it has to have lots of hiding places and cover. A 55gal tank with one hide and a water bowl isn't it.

That makes perfect sense. It seems like every time I read one thing another one gives me different information so i've been trying to take both sides and pull out the info that makes sense. The 10 gal is really a temporary enclosure. I have a 20 gal aquarium in the basement that we don't use because it leaks which is a problem for an aquarium not a terrarium. But I know glass makes it harder to control humidity as well so i've been looking into tma 40gal thats made of plastic. If our python grows out of the 10gal quicker than I expect than we may be using the 20gal aquarium until I find a more suitable enclosure. Thanks for the response!

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[Sallysmom]

I’m using a glass tank and after some tweaking and modifications my temperatures and humidity are perfect and stay that way with very little interference. I have a 20 tank. Cold side covered by plexiglass on top Wich helps to keep temps and humidity stable, heat lamp in the middle to keep ambienta up, thermostat controlled UTH to keep hot spot at 90. I bought a 20$ humidifier at Rite Aid (it sprays for about 8 hours on one fill) and set it on top of plexiglass. It perfectly keeps the humidity very steady and the snek seems to quite enjoy it. I have three hides. One in the middle is medium temperature (neither hot nor cold) and has damp sphangum moss in it. Sally loves chilling in there during day time.
With this set up my BP that came to me underweight, dehydrated and with a stuck shed has been eating like a champ shedding beautifully and looking amazing.

* I live in Cali so humidity is a challenge to keep up without the humidifier. Temps in my apartment are climate controlled and usually between 75-77 so the tank has to be warmer than that.

[Phillydubs]

Do you plan to use something to control the ambient temp? Like a heat lamp or CHE?? What’s the temp of the room ?

you need to add the water bowl or you are wasting your time.

Did you cover the entire top? The snake needs air to breathe so I hope not

I’m on Long Island so similar temps to you. People make glass tanks work but they take effort and tweaking.

There is a guy it in here named Craig F. He gave me good advice on beefing up glass because I like you am a long time aquarist and have many spares. I currently only use one glass tank and it’s for my mandarin rat which has no heat sources so it’s a diff application.

Did you look on craigs list , every time I go to use a glass tank I find a great deal in CL and don’t.

[Coluber42]

The other thing to remember about humidity is that what we're talking about is *relative* humidity, which means the amount of moisture relative to how much the air can "hold" at a given temperature. So if the temperature goes up, the relative humidity goes down unless you somehow add more moisture to the air. Deep substrate is one source for more moisture; a sponge or handful of moss or some other wicking material in a bowl of water is another possible source. A water bowl is also a source, it just won't evaporate as fast as if it has some wicking material in it to effectively increase the surface area. Live plants with soil are another possible source. Misting is a possible source, but relying on that is difficult because that produces a lot of droplets that all evaporate right away and then they're gone, so the humidity spikes and then drops off quickly. Those other things I mentioned will release moisture more gradually, so the humidity will be more stable.

It's not that hard to make a glass tank work. You just have to limit how fast the moisture escapes and make sure there's enough moisture inside that can evaporate over time without making the snake sit around in a damp/moldy environment.


*Technically it's not actually the air "holding" moisture, but it's a good enough description for these purposes. Read Wikipedia for more info if you care.

[Bogertophis]

Hey all!

Next week my girlfriend and i ate cooking to pick out our first ball python. Now i've been doing a ton of research the last few weeks and have set up an enclosure and have been testing different things to get the temperature and humidity under control. The enclosure is a 10gal which we will upgrade to a 20 to 40 gal in the future as our bp progresses. The substrate im using is coconut fiber with a UTH and a thermostat is being delivered tomorrow along with a digital thermometer/ hygrometer combo. I've covered the top with plastic to trap in humidity. At the moment, I feel like I'm fighting the changing conditions of New England with the temperature differences at the moment. My main question is will the animal impact the humidity vs the empty enclosure? I've been trying to research this but i guess this isn't a typical question? Any help or input would be great. I have not finished the enclosure since i don't have and hides in there yet, as I'm not sure of the exact size our bp will start at and i may need to add a wider water bowl to assist the humidity. Also knowing the water bowl needs to be filled with purified water, is this the same type of water that needs to be sprayed in the enclosure as well or is tap water ok? Our tap water does not have any trace of ammonia or chlorine in it and we use this in our aquarium.

Thanks in advance! We're super excited to get our bp!

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I'm so glad you clarified the "ate cooking" part...I was thinking you must be hungry & your subconscious mind did the typing. There are NO recipes here for BP-stew!

As others said, you'll have to tweak ANY enclosure as seasons change. A larger water bowl CAN improve humidity IF it's partly over UTH heat. Many of my snakes
LOVE their 'humid-hides' -filled with sphagnum moss (soaked & mostly squeezed out before using). Even if not shedding, it feels natural to them.

Your animal won't be breathing out enough humid air to impact the reading in the cage. As far as "purified" water versus tap, purified will reduce the water spots* left by
the minerals in the water, but honestly I use tap water anyway. (our local water tests pretty clean & safe) I do remember reading that you should never use "distilled"
water for herps though, they need the trace minerals & distilled can mess them up somehow. (*& an effective mildly-germicidal thing to wipe down a cage with is white
vinegar, which will get rid of hard water deposits anyway. I especially use it in water bowls...& obviously you do need to rinse it.)

Congratulations on your new ball python!

[Sallysmom]

Also the first substrate I used was Aspen (it came with a basic tank kit) and it was a nightmare in terms of keeping humidity in. I switched to cypress mulch after first deep cleaning and it is a lot better.

[Zincubus]

Also the first substrate I used was Aspen (it came with a basic tank kit) and it was a nightmare in terms of keeping humidity in. I switched to cypress mulch after first deep cleaning and it is a lot better.

Aspen should be banned

It looks rubbish , it makes your snakes look bad by kinda sucking the colour out of them and it's useless for holding humidity.
Also he gets all over the house and carpets .

I use Orchid bark / reptibark


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