Very new to ball pythons, is my setup ok for her?

[CaptCrunch90]

Hey everyone, my new girl finally arrived this week, and I wanted to double check my setup with you experienced guys on here. Her warm side is 90* using an UTH with thermostat. Ambient temp is 80* with the infrared lamp/dimmer. I had to get 2 new hides because she was a bit bigger than I was expecting, but are the logs enclosed enough? Also I have the lamp off center because she was getting pretty close to it on the branches, but should I rearrange them to make them lower? And lastly I mist the tank twice a day which brings it up to 50-60% humidity, but drops to 20-30% within an hour, is this ok? Those are my only concern so far, thanks a lot for any advice you can offer.
http://i.imgur.com/i0rSK5K.jpg

[erich_7719]

First pictures would help a lot.

I have heard that the half logs are not enough, but I have raised 6 BP's with only half logs with no problems.

As for your humidity. If you have a screen top, find something to cover most of the top (scaran wrap, aluminum foil, plexi-glass...)

BP's don't require a light source for heat so if you feel she is getting to close to it, you could always switch out the bulb with a LED bulb.

Everything else, with out pictures to see, sounds good.

[bcr229]

I can't see the pictures. It sounds like your temps are ok but not the humidity. Is there a cover on the enclosure? If not you can wrap the top in something like foil to keep the heat and humidity inside - just make sure to adjust your heat sources as needed so it doesn't get too hot in there.

Alternatively you can make a humid hide for your ball python.

[CaptCrunch90]

Sorry can't figure out the pictures, here are the links.



The top is just a screen, so I'll definitely try out the foil thanks.

And also I have a blue bulb but it wasn't getting it warm enough, only to 77

[CaptCrunch90]

Oh and one more question sorry. I've been reading up on the infrared and some people say it's ok for heat 24 hours, and others dont. What are your opinions?

[erich_7719]

My opinion... Infrared heats items not ambient air, so it depends on what your using it for. A ceramic heater, or heat lamp, does better at heating the ambient air, but also dries out the air.

For my cages, not my racks, I only heat with a UTH. The ambient in that room is between 70 and 74. Ambient in the cage is about 75-79 with a plexi-glass cover to control humidity.

Your cage looks just as I imagined it. Nice setup.

Also if your going to use a heat lamp, it shouldn't be directly over her water supply. It could get the water to hot to drink. Maybe consider putting over the cool side, set to the mid to high 70's (around 77-79).

Again these are just my opinions based on my experience.

[CaptCrunch90]

Yeah my goal with the IR was to heat the air because the room is 68-70. I'll get one of the ceramic bulbs then, and maybe put the blue light back on for during the day. I had read to place the water bowl below the light to help with humidity, but I didn't consider it getting too warm, thanks a lot.

[erich_7719]

The ambient temperature should be enough to evaporate the water. My experience is the bigger the water dish surface area is the more humidity in the enclosure.

Here's what it looks like in Africa right now, Click here.

[CaptCrunch90]

Wow that's interesting, 89% humidity. Maybe I'll just get a larger water dish too. I feel bamboozled, I got a starter kit for snakes and the only thing I'll end up using are the cage and light fixture haha. Ah well.

[erich_7719]

It is, but seriously she should do fine with 50-60% RH with 65-75% RH during shed. UTH set at 90 (BTW how big is your UTH compared to the tank it should be about one third the size), that should give you an ambient around 75-79 F. With a light on the cool side.