Humidity question

[hellodeeries]

My question has to do with humidity. My room has eight aquariums right now (all for fish), though I will be taking my largest one out (probably won't change the humidity all that much, though). My room's humidity alone has 60% humidity and his enclosure I measured at 70% with only a water dish supplying the rest of the humidity. I haven't measured other areas of my house, though I would prefer to keep him in my room (my family isn't comfortable around snakes). It has been slightly overcast the past few days, but overall I live in a fairly warm and dry area. I know ball pythons can tolerate up to about 70%, but I'm worried my room may be too much for him after the summer when the rainy season starts again (our winters are rainy, not snowy). I'm not sure how high the humidity will get around then, but I expect it could be closer to 80%.

What is the highest the humidity should be for ball pythons? I've been seeing 50-70, but as I'm already there and it is going into summer I'm worried that is too high. I know some types of snakes shouldn't have too high of levels because it can cause issues, but I'm not sure where ball pythons fall in that. Also, how would I go about lowering the levels?

I know the immediate would be to not have aquariums in the same room, but I can't move them all immediately. I will be moving my largest out in the next couple weeks, and a couple of others will be moved out/disassembled as I'm combining some in a larger tank in another part of the house. Some I won't be able to move out, though, but they are my smaller ones.

This is my first (and only, so far) ball python. I bought my ball python about three and a half weeks ago from someone who didn't have time anymore and also did not handle him very much. He is very shy and rather docile, though has stuck out (no bite) twice, though I'm pretty sure it was because he wasn't handled for months and suddenly I would take him out daily for a few minutes. I now take him out every couple days and I haven't had any other issues so far.

1. How long have you had your ball python? Under a month.
2. How old (or how big) is your snake? Previous owner got it from Petsmart, so I'm unsure on age. I think about a little over a year in age. About 2' long and about 200 grams (my scale broke on me so I haven't been able to weigh him - another is in transit from Amazon now).
3. Does it eat on a regular schedule? Previous owner said he did, but so far he's only eaten two meals with me and skipped this past week (previous two times were a week apart).
4. How long since its last meal? About a week and a half.
5. What type/size prey is being offered? Previous owner fed hoppers, I fed him one that he came with but he seemed a bit thin/small to me for how long they'd had him and tried an adult mouse with him. He ate it up, then skipped the next week when I offered him the same size.
6. How often do you offer food? Every thursday so far.
7. What type and size of enclosure does it live in? Came in a 10g, I now have him in a plastic storage bin about 40" long and 18" wide and 6" tall (not sure on exact dimensions - I re-purposed one I already had). I plan to move him into a larger terrarium when I have the space to set it up, but that is still a few weeks out from happen
8. What are you using as substrate? If it has depth, how deep is it? He had some sort of bark with what he came with, but now in the bin I'm using paper towels.
9. What type of heating do you use? I have a heat lamp I keep raised away so it won't melt the plastic until I decide how to adjust his housing and what I'll use for heating.
10. Do you use a thermostat to control temperatures? Not currently, though the lamp is only over one half so it has a cool end and a warm end - warm end is about 88F and cool 78F.
11. What do you use to measure/monitor temperatures? I have a hygrometer on the end away from the water bowl.
12. What are the surface and ambient temperatures in the enclosure? 76F on cool end on the floor and 88F on the warm end on the floor.
13. What is the average humidity level? 70 right now
14. How many and what type of hides does the snake have? Three - one on the cool end, one on the warm end, and one in the middle.
15. Is water readily available at all times? Yes. Bowl cleaned as needed and replaced once a day.
16. Does the snake live alone or does it share the enclosure with anything else? Alone.
17. How often and for how long is the snake typically handled? Previous owner didn't handle very often - they weren't comfortable with snakes apparently. First couple days I took him out once daily for about 10 minutes. He struck out once so I changed to handling him every three or so days instead, still for around 10-15 minutes. I also leave the tub open on my bed while I'm in the room and let him roam for at most an hour or so once or twice a week.
18. Does the snake have any medical history (old injuries or illnesses)? Not that I know of.
19. Do you have any other reptiles? Have you brought in any new reptiles recently? No. I do have aquariums in the same room, though.
20. Is there anything specific or unique about your situation that we should be aware of? I don't think so.

Thank you!

[CORBIN911]

That humidity will not hurt him at all, Youll expect perfect sheds all the time every time, And you wont need any messy substrate you can use plain ol paper towel!

The only caution you need to take with that humidity is that the air temp never drops to cold as that can cause concern for R.I just keep a nice 78+/- cool side and 90+/- and hell be a golden happy boy


Times where they live the humidity jumps up to 90+% so hell be 100% happy!



Secondly at 200g you guys prolly only a few months old unless under fed! most yearlings can get 500-600+ as a male!


As for feeding try to get him onto rats earlier then later (if he keeps declining meals give him the mice till hes more comfortable) but itll save alot of effort when hes 500+ grams and needs 3+mice, vs 1 small rat.

Aswell if he does decline again (offer in 5-7days) make sure the room is dark and just leave the rat on the warm side of the tank, most of the time you'll wake up to a missing rat! Which is what my lav spider girl always does! its annoying but she does eat)

[zookeeper]

I am about as experienced as you are with BPs , but I will chime in that I lived in Northern Cali for a few years and loved it ( I lived in Willits for the most part ) . I DO remember cold damp times though which from what I have learned here , is what you don't want for the snake. I have seen a lot of good guidelines here that give minimum temps , I would say read the caresheet and follow those minumum temps and be glad humidity is not an issue for you lol .

Summers were beautiful there , but I do remember feeling the cold damp in my bones. I loved it there though. Wish I could have stayed I lived in Willits but also spent some time in Ft Bragg. Gorgeous part of the country to be sure. Went to College Of The Redwoods for a semester or so.

[hellodeeries]

That humidity will not hurt him at all, Youll expect perfect sheds all the time every time, And you wont need any messy substrate you can use plain ol paper towel!

The only caution you need to take with that humidity is that the air temp never drops to cold as that can cause concern for R.I just keep a nice 78+/- cool side and 90+/- and hell be a golden happy boy


Times where they live the humidity jumps up to 90+% so hell be 100% happy!



Secondly at 200g you guys prolly only a few months old unless under fed! most yearlings can get 500-600+ as a male!


As for feeding try to get him onto rats earlier then later (if he keeps declining meals give him the mice till hes more comfortable) but itll save alot of effort when hes 500+ grams and needs 3+mice, vs 1 small rat.

Aswell if he does decline again (offer in 5-7days) make sure the room is dark and just leave the rat on the warm side of the tank, most of the time you'll wake up to a missing rat! Which is what my lav spider girl always does! its annoying but she does eat)

Okay, thank you!

Yeah, by the time our nights get problematic he will have a better setup (right now he's probably fine because I have a heat lamp that I have raised so it doesn't melt the plastic, but it was kind of done on the fly and isn't what I'd want for long-term). For now although outside the temperature dips a bit, the indoor temperature is still in the good zone. Winter will not be so kind.

I'm thinking he is pretty underfed from both Petsmart and his previous owners. He seemed a bit underweight when I got him, but he looks better now.

I'm going to try and transition him to rats when I get a bulk order of them. I'm getting a Brazilian Rainbow Boa who is already eating rats, so I'm going to order both mice and rats in bulk so I still have him covered with mice if he doesn't take rats at all, but hopefully I can transition him. I'll have to make sure the site I'd order them from have a small enough size - I'm not sure the range they do for rats, but I think adult mice might be just a tad too large for him, though hoppers are probably too small. He is at this between stage, I guess.

Yeah, I try to feed him towards evening or leave it overnight in case he is too shy. I'm going to try and feed him again tomorrow night after I scrub his bin really well as I've read that can help with tricky feeders. I'm not sure if he is really being tricky, or he is just still unused to a new schedule or something. His previous owners were really vague on how often they fed him, do this may be more than he is used to or something.

[hellodeeries]

I am about as experienced as you are with BPs , but I will chime in that I lived in Northern Cali for a few years and loved it ( I lived in Willits for the most part ) . I DO remember cold damp times though which from what I have learned here , is what you don't want for the snake. I have seen a lot of good guidelines here that give minimum temps , I would say read the caresheet and follow those minumum temps and be glad humidity is not an issue for you lol .

Summers were beautiful there , but I do remember feeling the cold damp in my bones. I loved it there though. Wish I could have stayed I lived in Willits but also spent some time in Ft Bragg. Gorgeous part of the country to be sure. Went to College Of The Redwoods for a semester or so.

That is a beautiful area - we visit that area every so often to camp. I live more in the Central Valley (Sacramento), but still technically Northern California. We get more of the 'extremes' of the seasons than other parts. Really hot summers and freezing winters. But no snow (though it is about an hour drive away by car) thankfully. I'll have to monitor everything for him and the Brazilian Rainbow Boa I'm getting really well in Winter especially, though summer isn't so bad where I am in my house (we have a large tree that shades my room in particular, so even when it is 110F outside, at most we get 90F without the AC on.

When I finish my lower division classes for college I'll likely be moving to the Bay Area, though, which will be more like what Fort Bragg gets (depending on where, but in general).

[CORBIN911]

For him look at rat pups most snakes at 150+ grams can handle (ask for smaller pups) they range from 10-20g after 6-10 feedings you could transition to weanlings. And for my males I stop at smalls that's biggest they need even my 2500+g females I feed bigger mediums to. Never have fed large/jumbo. Gl


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