My husbandry SUCKS

[cchardwick]

I have piles of equipment that I bought that I no longer use, I think that's pretty typical. You have to find what works for you. It's expensive but it's trail and error and we are all trying to learn as we go. I started with glass aquariums and under tank heaters, tried all kinds of different substrates, decorations, hides, etc. I finally ended up going with an ARS rack and Reptichip coconut husk as the substrate. I mist every three days using a pump up 2 gallon sprayer that I bought from Home Depot. I found if you get Reptichip too wet it molds like crazy, best to just get it fairly wet but not soaking and let it really dry out before you spray it down again. I also clear out a spot in the back of the tub and put the snake directly on the plastic tub. If he makes a mess I move the Reptichip over and spray down the plastic with diluted Chlorhexidine that I bought on Amazon, wipe it dry and put the snake back on the plastic bottom, then wet down the Reptichip with water.

Right now I'm struggling with thermostats, the cheap Hydrofarm thermostats fail in the on position, just this week I found one that was over 100 degrees, probably has been that way for a couple weeks. No wonder some of my snakes weren't eating! I just ordered some Herpstat 4 thermostats, expensive but should be accurate temps for all my levels.

I actually used my glass aquariums to raise rodents, then finally moved them into another ARS rack system and it's just wonderful, saves me tons of time and money. Now I have a pile of empty aquariums in the garage LOL.

I've probably spent over $1,000 in equipment that I don't use anymore, seems like I keep expanding and outgrowing my current setup with better equipment that is more reliable, and saves time and money. Of course my goal is breeding and I have a lot of high end snakes that I've invested in, so probably more than an average hobbyist. I figure in a few years I'll get back all my invested money and money wasted if my snakes actually produce some offspring that I can sell.

From what I've seen from your setup I'd ditch the fogger / mister and mist by hand every few days and let the humidity spike and drop a bit. Then get a digital thermostat, ditch the dial one. Then get a temp monitor with high and low temp alarms. This is the one I use, I bought eight of them, one for each level in my rack system, all seem spot on as far as temps, great reviews, and they are cheap:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1