Humidity + Temp issues?

[CaptainNegatory]

Hello All,
My baby BP is in a decent sized cage. It is wooden with a Plexiglas front and originally was built for an adult bearded dragon. I'm having trouble with temperature and humidity. We had the 100W (red) bulb which was far too hot. Now, we've got the purple/black bulb at 75W. The hot side of the tank has temperature of 95 and humidity of 40. The cool side is 85 with a humidity of 65. I've adjusted his timer for 2 hours on and hour off, until night time it shuts off at 8PM until 8AM. I've done this too make sure it doesn't get too hot but it's still not working out quite right. He had an incomplete shed we had to bathe him a few times and rub him to get it off. I've got all of his skin off except the head which he wont let me touch so I ordered sphagnum moss and a humid hide.

What should I do for the temp/humidity issue? Should I decrease the bulb another wattage and run it for 12/12 a day? Please help, I can't figure this out. Thanks in advance.

-C. Negatory

[MixtSpice]

You should have a uth as well as the bulbs. What are you using to measure the tempature and humidity?

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[Coluber42]

A UTH might not work well in a wooden cage. But you can either decrease the wattage of your bulb (save the higher wattage ones though, in case you need them when the weather gets colder) or you can try a ceramic heat emitter. They look like an odd bulb that emits heat but no light, and you can use a dimmer or a thermostat to get the temperature you need.

I suspect that once you get your temperature under control, your humidity will improve too. You can provide a humid hide if you're concerned. The bad shed might just be settling in stress, etc, and the next one might be better.

[CaptainNegatory]

We threw in some sohaghuj moss in one of his hides on the hot and cool side, well see how that goes. What will the ceramic heat emitter do differently from the regular bulb? I definitely can't use a UTH in this tank. Everything is prewired and that'd be difficult to do.

[Coluber42]

All the ceramic bulb would do differently is make heat with no visible light. That's all.

Either way, you can try a dimmer and see if that fixes it.

[CaptainNegatory]

So I changed up a few things. I bought him the ZooMed Medium Repticave, and out it on the warm side of his tank with sphagnum moss. I also bought a ceramic heat emitter and put it on a remote thermostat with a probe so it is successfully maintaining the temperature at 90 degrees on the warm and 78-80 on the cool. I also set the tanks overhead lighting, although not necessary, to come on at 8AM and shutoff at 8PM. He loves the cave and has been in there a lot, occasionally hanging his head out and looking around.

Now my humidity has gone through the roof. He has a water bowl on each side of the tank, so I'm going to try and move the hot side waterbowl to the cool side and seeing if that helps reduce the humidity. We were at 68 percent on the hot side and 73 on the cool.

[CaptainNegatory]

I'm worried the humidity is because of his cage. Being that it's a wooden box essentially with a glass front.it has tiny holes drilled all around the side but not enough to vent a lot of moisture. I'm not really sure how I can't change this short of remodeling the whole tank and cutting holes in the wood with some sort of mesh so he can't escape or touch the lights. I'll try to upload a photo if I can.

[CaptainNegatory]

[fireflii]

I would definitely make sure there is no way he can touch the CHE or any heating device that can get hot (not sure if the light does since I don't use those). Those can get extremely hot and burn your snake if he touches it. Typically, CHE are only for outside of the enclosure. If you're looking for heating options, you can check out an RHP (reptile heat panel). Those are good for heating and can go inside the enclosure (easy to install from what I've heard). I've never personally used one, though, so I can't speak from experience. I'd also make sure you either have a dimmer or a thermostat, and then a digital thermometer/hygrometer. Analog ones can be wildly inaccurate. Otherwise, it's good to have the heating product off-centered so you can create a temperature gradient. I could be wrong, but I think I see two water bowls? That could also contribute to the amount of humidity. One, large enough to soak in, should be fine. If it's too much humidity, you can move it to the cool end, but if it's not humid enough you can keep it on the hot end. You can also dry out some of the sphagum moss you put in if it's too humid.

If you can, just as a side note, you might want to get some more leafy decor. Even though you provide several hides, it's still pretty open.

[CaptainNegatory]

I want to get a leafy back splash and green decor but my local Pet smart / Petco have the crappiest options. I don't like anything they have. I'd like to get a dirt substrate too in order to be more natural. The humidity seems to have worked itself out after moving the second water bowl to the cool side and leaving the humid hide in place. In the near future I will remodel this cage to get the heating elements out, lighting as well. The temperature/hydrometer combo was cheap and doesn't use batteries, can you recommend good ones for each side of the tank? I did cross check them with known conditions and they're good, for now.