Help!! substrate and humidity issues

[pinkpineappleshoes]

Ok, so this is my first post here and im just after a little advice please. We got our first bp around 2 months ago. We have plenty of experience with corns but this was the first ball. I have done plenty of research and pretty much know whats what.

So setup is fine, temps perfect on each side with digital monitors. The only problem we had from the start was keeping the humidity up. I swapped the water bowl for a larger one and with daily misting was maintaining around 50%. We were currently using beech chip substrate but had heard bark chips were good for keeping humidity up so bought some in and swapped it over tonight whilst cleaning the tank out. I was worried the swap might upset my girl so kept everything else in its usual place (i like to swap things up when i clean out to keep them from boredom). But now shes back in and is refusing to use her hides! I dont know whether to clean the whole tank again and swap back or leave her to it and hope after a few more hours she gets used to it and chills out. Will swapping it over again stress her more? Feeding day is tomorrow also 😁.

Another issue i now have is the humidity has spiked slowly upto 75%! (I only cleaned the tank 3 hours ago, im not sure if it will carry on increasing!) I havent misted the tank, this is simply just as it is with the substrate switched. There is no condensation etc, will this be a safe environment to keep her in? I obsess constantly that everything is just perfect for her, so im stressing like mad over this. I would attach a picture to give people a better idea of things but im not sure how to do that yet...sorry!!

[bcr229]

Your humidity at 75% is fine. Also, it may take your BP a few days to settle, even though all of her cage furniture is in the same place, since the substrate will have a different smell to it.

[pinkpineappleshoes]

thank you! just needed my mind putting to rest. I drive my husband mad with my obsessing. He told me she would be just fine. I woke up the next morning and she is back to normal using her hides as usual. Took her mouse in seconds so shes clearly not too bothered. But yes, the smell was definitely different which is what I thought might have bothered her the most!

That said, this new change of substrate has now left me with yet another problem...starting to think I should have just stuck with the beech chips and continued misting. So, its resulted in a drop in temperatures? Not sure why or how. My uth is set with a thermostat to 33' so that should remain as it was. Im assuming it will heat through as normal? Ive been told it wont affect ambient temps? But now my hotspot has dropped to between 29-31' depending on time of day so lower than it should be and the rest of the temps have also dropped by 1-2'. Im a little stumped by this to be honest? Suggestions welcome please...

[bcr229]

But now my hotspot has dropped to between 29-31' depending on time of day so lower than it should be and the rest of the temps have also dropped by 1-2'. Im a little stumped by this to be honest? Suggestions welcome please...

Is that the temperature of the air over the warm side, or the surface temperature of the glass? The surface temp shouldn't change no matter what kind of substrate you use.

[pinkpineappleshoes]

well i assumed the same which is why im so confused.

thats the air temperatures. My tank is wooden with a sliding glass front. So i have a uth under the substrate attached to a thermomstat. then i have a dual thermometer hygrometer attached to the centre back wall and i have two digital thermometers on top of the substrate one in the hot spot and one at the cool end. i have a heat lamp in the warm end on a 12-12 timer to raise ambient temps throughout the day. The temperature drops naturally at night but the uth is on continually so the warm end is always warm. I havent changed any of my setup apart from the substrate but this is the first time the temps have changed dramatically. Today it seems to have taken a while to warm up but now back to regular temps, im wondering if the substrate needed a couple of days to air out maybe and was affecting the readings on my thermometers? Ill see how the next couple of days go..

[bcr229]

Changing substrate from the dry beech chips to the wetter bark moved a lot of "thermal mass" out of and back into the enclosure. So yes that would drop ambient temps for a while, until everything inside had a chance to heat up. The temperature of the floor over the UTH and under the substrate should not have changed much at all though, which is why it's important to use an IR thermometer or "temp gun" to read the surface point temperatures over the UTH. Many BP's will burrow or push aside the substrate and come into contact with the bare floor.

[pinkpineappleshoes]

i never had that happen before when cleaning out the beech chips so it was new to me, but good to know it was just something so simple.

the thermostats directly on top of my heat mat so i know it will never overheat or become dangerous for her. shes pretty chilled out anyway, hasnt ever tried to burrow or rearrange her tank yet. maybe once she gets bigger, we will see. thanks for your advice