How to heat and humidify terrarium

[6pixie]

I currently have a Exo Terra faunarium for my baby ball python as a temporary home and I am having trouble getting the ambient temperature up to 80 degrees and the humidity up to 60%. I am using a ZooMed UTH which makes the hot spot 90-92 degrees but I really want to house him in a proper temperature/humidity. Any tips for getting the temp and humidity up?

[theskyturnsgrey]

How big is the terrarium? Need more info to help you. What is the temperature of the room the enclosure is located in? Could be a simple fix of turning up the heat in the room. As far as humidity, have a large water bowl and put it on the hot side, that should help with humidity. if your terrarium has a screen top cover it with a piece of plexiglass, or a moist towel and you should be okay.

What kind of substrate are you using? Have you tried misting?

[Yodawagon]

Uth Will not generally increase your ambient temperature.

[simplechamp]

I'm currently housing my BP in a 36x18x18 ExoTerra terrarium, and have housed BP in the past in a smaller glass tank (footprint of a 20G aquarium, but only about 8" tall).

Glass does have it's challenges, especially the larger tanks, but can be done with a little extra work. First thing I do is surround the back and sides with foamboard insulation (comes in those big pink and/or blue sheets from the hardware store). This helps with keeping temp regulated, especially if house is cooler in winter the glass is a big heatsink. Can be painted for better look, but for temporary housing might not be worth the effort. As mentioned the UTH alone generally won't get your ambients up high enough, will need a CHE or radiant heat panel for that. I have my UTH on a thermostat but put CHE on a dimmer and tweak it as needed.

For humidity you will need to cover most of the (I assume screen) lid. I got some 3/32" lexan from hardware store and cut it to size to fit the divided screen sections of the lid on my ExoTerra. If you want a quick and easy method you can use plastic wrap. I also covered the lid partially with more foamboard to help with temp regulation. Keeping the water dish on the warm side, and keeping a container of moist Sphagnum Moss will help increase humidity. Some misting still may be required, depending on your individual setup (if you have a CHE blasting full power it burns up the humidity a lot quicker than a radiant heat panel that's running low on a dimmer or thermostat).

I already had the ExoTerra when I decided to get a BP again and was planning on it being temporary, and ordered an AP T8 enclosure. But with the modifications it's actually a good display/pet setup and I have a feeling the new T8 will end up being home for some new scaly friends! See below for pic of my setup. Like I said it was setup as temporary. If I decide to keep it I'm going to paint the foam black and find better way to attach (just using masking tape right now)

Hope this helps!