Quote Originally Posted by Emily Hubbard View Post
I provide a humid hide all the time and I have found my snake never goes near it unless in shed, during which she will stay in there for nearly two weeks and shed perfectly. Scale rot is a very valid concern, I am not shutting down your argument AT ALL, just saying I personally have found that my snake really knows better, and it is absolutely astounding how she instinctively knows when she needs more humidity for a shed and exactly where to find it. I like having it there all the time because she knows when she needs it and she can't tell me. She goes in several days before she shows any signs of a shed and doesn't emerge til she's done. She just shed last night and after spending 2 weeks in the humid hide, she was back in her normal warm side hide, having left a neat little pile of shed skin in the humid hide. I thing an environment constantly misted to maintain humidity is a FAR greater scale rot risk than always having a humid hide.
Yes, I agree that some snakes will not sit in the humid hide 24/7, but some do as well. It really depends on how much you have to mist to maintain a baseline humidity level. even with a heat lamp, it really shouldn't be very difficult to maintain 40%-50%, then 1 week of misting a lot to maintain humidity above 60%. You never want the substrate to be continually wet, my cages stay at 60% all the time but they do so without me having to mist so the substrate stays dry.