newspaper substrate and humidity

[royalgrappler]

So I switched from Repti bark to newspaper as a substrate. My question is am I gonna have a issue with the paper getting wet? I don't want a issue with scale rot. And although I always check for urine and poop, I have a fogger. So any advice or opinions, thanks.

[M.P.C]

Nope it gets wet and dries. a problem you could have is holding humidity at correct levels

[Sauzo]

Well I guess that depends on how much humidity you have in there and is the fogger creating droplets in the cage or dripping onto the newspaper? Having a humidity of 50-60% shouldn't make newspaper wet as I run that humidity in all my cages and sometimes my big BCI girls cage gets up to almost 70% humidity at times and I use aspen for all my snakes and it never feels wet or damp. Scale rot is from being on a damp/wet substrate 24/7 which is kind of the reason I don't like Eco Earth since if you let it dry out, it gets really dusty but if you keep it wet, you can run the chance of scale rot. Also this is from prolonged exposure of sitting on a wet substrate. I would be more concerned of an RI if it got that wet as the water will cool down and then the snake is sitting in a wet cold puddle of water.

Bottom line, as long as the newspaper doesn't feel wet to the touch, you are probably fine.

[royalgrappler]

Thanks. I've been timid to use my fogger and his humidity dropped a little. It drips rarely, but I have a empty dish under the nozzle, so any built up water falls right in.

[IsmQui718]

I've been using newspaper that's been put through the shredder. It's been working for me, as humidity doesn't drop below 50% in my rack. It's usually 55%. A few of my snakes have had nice, clean sheds, so it's not an issue.

I switched to shredded newspaper because it's much more economical than other substrates. If it gets wet, it dries pretty quickly. Sauzo and M.P.C have brought up some good points. As well.


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[kitedemon]

Newspaper is hygroscopic it attracts water from the air. This is why when you have newspapers in a high humidity environment they feel damp. This should not bother the snakes much but in my experience it does cause a drop in humidity in the air until the paper stops and the system catches up again. In my case a few days, I saw drops of 7-10% in RH @ 82ºF. I found a light mist on the enclosure bottom before adding the paper stopped this from happening altogether.

[MarkS]

I wouldn't use a fogger in there, it could get too wet. During the driest parts of the year I like to spray the paper with a hand held mister every few days or so.