Humidity and substrate

[snakelovingrannie]

I am using aspen in the bottom of my "critter tank"....I have two bowls of water in it...one on the cool side and one on the warm side.. THe cool side is 75 degrees and the warm side is 92...Is it normal to have humidity problems using the aspen? Would It be better keeping the humidity up using newspaper? I am getting a non glass home for Jackson soon. This forum has been wonderful..I have learned SO MUCH...Thank you to everyone who is willing to share their knowledge with us "newbies".....:-)

[Pokey]

I am using aspen as well with the same two bowl water system and it works great for me. I am also using a glass tank. The big thing that i found is covering the top screen with a towel or better yet a piece of contact paper or plastic drawer liner found at walmart. Leave about 1/2 an inch arround the edge of the screen cover for ventilation. Once the temps and humidity were where they need to be it was easy to regulate them by adjusting the screen cover or misting the cage. I am assuming you are using a thermostat to regulate the humidity, and a hydrometer to monitor the humidity. if so then you are golden with aspen bedding and a screen cover. it takes some trial and error adjusting but once you find the sweet spot then it maintains itself for the most part.

[new2BP]

i switched to apen about 3 weeks ago. it does bring the humidity down so u need to cover most of the top with only enough holes for ventalation. if u are using a heat lamp u will have fun. i tried for almost a week and decided to get another UTH. i couldnt keep the humidity above 50 %. i now have placed my water bowl over one of my UTH and my humidity is right on between 50 and 60%. get your cool side around 82. your hot side is fine.

[frankykeno]

You need to get that cool side up a bit higher, around the 80 - 82 degree mark as 75 is a bit low. If it's too cool your snake could become ill or will just refuse to use the cool side hide which ruins it's ability to thermoregulate. Glass enclosure's seem to be so much work! We have only the big boa in glass and it took ages to get it set right for him and it's still more of a worry than all 6 of the ball python's plastic enclosures.

We use pure aspen in the ball's plastic enclosures and a mix if aspen and cypress mulch in the boa's glass enclosure as the cypress does help a bit with the humidity in winter we've found when we mixed it in with the aspen. Watch cypress though, it tends to come wet in the bag and needs to be baked to dry it and also remove any issues with bugs in it (lot of work in my mind so we only use it during the winter months in the big glass tank).


~~Jo~~

[snakelovingrannie]

I went to the reptile store today where I buy my mice...I got jackson a small rat pup for his supper. Boy is he enjoying it...it is his first rat...he had been eating mice. They told me to move my heat lamp to the opposite side that the uth is on. I did that and now the temps on the side with the utv are 92..that is on the bottom of the tank on top of the newspaper ( took the aspen out to see if I could get the humidity higher) and the cool side is up to 80.5. That is with the black heat bulb on it) Does this seem better? Sometimes things get so confusing. If this is NOT correct, please advise...thanks so much

[ErikH]

This sounds similar to my set-up (although I will be switching to plastic soon) The temps sound good if you can maintain them, I was unable to with the black light, and had to switch to a 75W infra-red. I have the lamp on a dimmer because I have to tweak it from time to time. I usually shoot for 82 degrees on the cool side. Keep an eye on your humidity, as any kind of lamp seems to lower it.

[amcgltdchix]

Thats a good idea!! but what do you use for them to bask in?

i switched to apen about 3 weeks ago. it does bring the humidity down so u need to cover most of the top with only enough holes for ventalation. if u are using a heat lamp u will have fun. i tried for almost a week and decided to get another UTH. i couldnt keep the humidity above 50 %. i now have placed my water bowl over one of my UTH and my humidity is right on between 50 and 60%. get your cool side around 82. your hot side is fine.

[rabernet]

that is on the bottom of the tank on top of the newspaper ( took the aspen out to see if I could get the humidity higher) and the cool side is up to 80.5.

Temps are good, but can you clarify something for me? Is the UTH on top of the newspaper, or that's the temp on top of the newspaper? Just want to make sure I'm not mis-reading this! LOL

[frankykeno]

Oh I should have thought to mention this. If you go back to using aspen at some point. I've noticed with ours that if you use to deep a layer of aspen it is tougher for the UTH's to get the proper heat up to the snake. Also I've gotten in the habit of finger fluffing the aspen up a couple of times per week, especially inside the hides, as especially as they get bigger the snakes weight compresses it down quite a bit. Anything compressed like that just can't transmit heat as efficiently.



~~Jo~~

[tigerlily]

The heat gets trapped and creates hot pockets (and no not the microwavable food ) Thanks again Joanna for that little tip.