humidity

[tanner]

i have a year and a hlaf old ball. i live in colorado and its dry here and im having trouble keeping up the humidity in his cage. i have and under tank heater but im not using it because im afriad it wont heat the tank enough. i use a daylamp and a night lamp. the humidity will drop to 15-20% during the day. i have even covered half the cage with drop plastic you would use for painting as a moisture barrier. i use fur bark as a substrate. i have a pretty good size water dish in there as well. what would anybody suggest?

[mainbutter]

The one thing that really helped me was putting in a generous amount of sphagnum moss in the tank, and I mist it daily. You can get bricks of it from local petsmarts and such.

Also, make use of that UTH(don't forget a thermostat or rheostat though!), BPs absorb more heat from the ground than through the air. I use a UTH alongside a night lamp.

[tanner]

thanks. should i keep a night lamp and the uth on constantly?

[vgibbens]

You can get a ceramic heat emitter and use that instead of the light, but i hear they also dry the tank out like the lights. Of course, you should use some type of thermostat with anything that's used to heat the enclosure. For humidity, I use the Sphagnum moss and keep it moist and that keeps my enclosure about 60%. I just have to rewet the moss every couple of days to keep the humidity up.

[tanner]

i bought a temperature gauge that reads both sides of the tank and the humidity

[tanner]

should i leave the fir bark in there and only do part of the inclosure with the moss, or shold i do the whole thing

[vgibbens]

I don't replace the substrate with the moss. I use several softball size clumps of the moss. Just get it wet and wring it out like a sponge, leave it damp. you can place some in the snake's hides or out in the open in the corner. I usually put a clump under/above a heat source as this helps the water to evaporate thus raising the humidity. Keep in mind that this bunch of moss near the heat source will dry out quicker, at least mine do. You said you bought a temp gauge, what type is it?

[tanner]

its an accurite and it measures both sides of the tank. is shagnum moss from lowes ok to use in the cage?

[vgibbens]

that's what I use. the long fiber sphagnum moss. i think it's like $4 for a small bag.

[tanner]

this stuff is not the long fiber stuff. its shagnum pete moss and its a little more ground up. Do you think its ok?