Tank Humidity

[hunterr24]

My tub is running at 68% humidity. Is that to high for a baby ball python? If so how do I lower it?

[George1994]

A bit, get some more ventilation. What kind of enclosure is it?

[Sauzo]

I would shoot for 50-60%. Too high combined with the heat and you are asking for mold or bacteria growth. To lower it, drill one hole at the top side of the tub. Do just one hole and then wait an hour to see what the humidity drops to. If you need more, drill another hole and rinse and repeat. Drill them on the sides of the tub, not on the top. If you drill on the top, you will lose humidity fast. On the sides, you still keep humidity while allowing a little to bleed off the sides.

[hunterr24]

It a sterilite tub. I have probably 20 drilled holes on the top. Maybe I need some on the side to get the air moving a bit. I did bump up the heat 2 degrees and it dropped to 64

[Boomerang]

Congrats! lol... I have a regular terrarium with mesh top...I have to continually mist almost a full spray bottle, twice a day at least. I'm considering getting an automatic mist machine for this..

[Jhill001]

I'm keeping Baird's rat snakes, due to them being hatchlings it's important to keep humidity a bit higher than you'd think just to make sure they don't get dehydrated. I also keep my snakes in screen tops and one thing I've started to do is keeping a pile of misted moist shredded coconut husk bedding in there. Humidity is held up a bit more consistently. The substrate doesn't get moldy when wet and the snakes love burrowing in it.

[kitedemon]

It depends on your ambient air temp. What few understand is the relative humidity is relative to temperature and is a % of the saturation point of the air. That like dissolving sugar in water changes with temperature.

68% could be too low if your ambient air temps are below 77ºF. Or basically spot on 77-79ºF and slightly over 80-82ºF or quite a lot over beyond 82+ºF.

The other thing to keep in mind is the accuracy of hygrometers is often quite poor. Some of the digitals on the market are only spec'd at +/- 8% meaning if it reads 60% it could actually be 68% or 52%. Cheap digital units are highly sensitive to dirt (expensive units are very fragile and very expensive). They use a carbon pad and measure mirco changes in current this can be effected by any dirt or worse uranate or urnate dust. Anything that could change the electrical resistance. They are very frail. When I used digital units I replaced them once a year and tested them using a test kit (salt tests destroy digital units) every 6 months. I have never had a digital unit stay reasonably accurate (probe inside an enclosure) for longer than 12 months. I started to use good quality analogue units (metal body, glass face, calibratable, and METAL face cards) they have stood up better to the tough environment of the snakes enclosures. The units that actually have hair in them are too fragile as well. I calibrate them still once every 6 months (using a standard salt test) and after 5 years have yet to need to replace one. I rarely find the accuracy off by more than 3%as good or better than every digital unit I ever owned.

[M.P.C]

Congrats! lol... I have a regular terrarium with mesh top...I have to continually mist almost a full spray bottle, twice a day at least. I'm considering getting an automatic mist machine for this..

Did you cover a majority of the top screen, help a but load with humidity, i cover my whole top and cut out a whole slightly bigger then my light. I placed a water bowl within the lights hearing range and i only have to mist once a day maybe... im also using aspen bedding

[JoshSloane]

Ive never liked the idea of having the entire enclosure at a set humidity level that is at the level of tolerance for an animal. In my opinion it is best to have humidity at the lower level of acceptable, and then provide a humid hide that they can choose to enter when they need a bit more humidity.