I use blank newsprint, and I actually throw it out and replace it once a week. Every 2nd or 3rd week (depending on any lingering poo-smudges or odors) I'll wipe down with 10% bleach/water.

I don't actually wet anything. I find younger animals adapt quite quickly to Arizona humidity--and they pee in their hides, and that ups the humidity in there somewhat. None of the animals I got as hatchlings have shedding issues, and they're all healthy as horses.

I do have two animals I got as 2 year-old sub-adults, from a breeder in Florida. One of them has adapted, but the other still has bad sheds, and a tongue that doesn't always fork:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...doesn%27t+fork

She's otherwise perfectly healthy, and she's been doing better with her humidity issues. But I keep an eye on her, and I'll spill water and/or throw a wet towel over her hide when I see her going blue. ...and sometimes I miss it, and I end up having to remove her old eyecaps and tail tip because she had a terrible shed.

Substrate would be better for her. But my husband can't stand the smell of two months worth of python pee. So Lois and I get intimate with the tweezers a few times a year.