I just got the Accu-Rite temp/humid gauges . . .

[Dananyc]

in the mail. I ordered one for each of my BP tanks after they were recommended. I also got a new larger hide for Kona, the snake who won't eat.

**Sheepish admission** Up until now, my husbandry hasn't been very scientific. I've just followed logical steps to keep Ramona warm and humid, and her perfect sheds, and excellent appetite, have told me all is well.

However, Kona is challenging and I'm going to perfect all of the husbandry stuff and hope that that triggers her appetite. But I'm not sure where to set up the gauge. Should it go on the cool side, or the warm side?

Also, I've always used white paper towels as substrate---not very pretty, but I got in the habit when I adopted Ramona because she had mites and I wanted to be able to monitor whether they were gone. Is it ok to keep using them?

[frankykeno]

You can keep on with the paper towels Dana or even go with newspaper. Not visually pleasing but a very easy substrate to remove quickly and clean up after their messes. Like Adam says...with newspaper you know when it's clean...it's clean.

Most of us put the actual Acu-Rite unit on the cool side. Just set it upright at substrate level somewhere near the cool side hide. You can attach it safely with velcro to keep the snake from knocking it over and dragging it around. Please never use any type of tape in a snake's enclosure. You can then run the thin probe out and then back into the enclosure and tuck the probe right into their warm side hide. Push a few buttons and you should have....

IN temp (what the unit itself is reading...in other words your cooler side)
OUT temp (what the probe is reading....the temp inside your warm side hide)
percentage humidity

The unit will generally be defaulted to time, temp and humidity but just push a few buttons and you are good to go.

Here's a pic that shows how mine in setup in one of my smaller BP tubs. I ran out of velcro that day so the Acu-Rite is just standing on the cool side but you'll get the basic idea here.