Obviously, husbandry is important. I think where there is a lot of confusion is what is "proper" husbandry? Does it even need to be "proper" or can it just be close enough? Like many things in life it is a range of temperatures and humidity coupled with an environment that offers them the basic necessities they would seek out in the wild. There is not only one absolute right way, but there can be many wrong ways. It is hard to point to your reason for success with the earlier animal. You may have had a hardy animal. You may have been lucky. It may have even been that you did not know enough to recognize that everything wasn't alright, but since he kept eating an pooping you assumed all is well.
For me, I like to keep ambient temps between 75 and 80, humidity above 40% and spray them additionally during shed cycles. Offer a warm spot that doesn't get over 89. After that it is mostly trial and error per individual animal. Some I use hides, some I don't. The best thing about having decent husbandry (besides the welfare of the animal) is it allows you to rule out that variable when the animal starts to exhibit changes in behavior.
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