Quote Originally Posted by JoshSloane View Post
What you are pointing out is a general "issue" in the herp keeping community. As reptile owners we understand that our animals, being ectothermic, require unique conditions to prosper in a climate that is vastly different than their native habitat. As much some strive to recreate the snakes unique environmental niche, this must be weighed with the reality of providing healthy conditions for the animal in a realistic and sustainable way. Obviously we all don't have the means to maintain large zoo-like habitats at home.

If you look at humidity readouts from the various sub-Saharan African locations where ball pythons originate from, you will see humidity usually in the 70-80+ percent range. This absolutely does contradict the dogmatic 60-70% humidity that most bps are kept at in the US. However, I believe that this stems from years of empirical evidence that shows bps living long healthy lives, shedding and breeding normally at humidity levels significantly lower than their natural habitats. We all must be realistic that we cannot fully recapitulate every exact artifact from a bps normal habitat, but we can keep the specs within healthy ranges. Point being, we must work within the parameters of the tools that we have when providing a reasonable habitat for a bp. Can we maintain higher humidity? Sure, I do with my BRB, but it presents another level of difficulty in husbandry that hasn't shown to be fully necessary.
Right, that's basically what I figured. Higher humidity comes with it's own host of potential problems, especially for new keepers, and if they do fine without it then there's no real reason to make the effort of maintaining those higher levels.

I just wanted to be sure that I wouldn't be taking any unnecessary risks if I decided to keep my snake in a more humid enclosure.