Quote Originally Posted by wingnut116 View Post
Hey all!

Next week my girlfriend and i ate cooking to pick out our first ball python. Now i've been doing a ton of research the last few weeks and have set up an enclosure and have been testing different things to get the temperature and humidity under control. The enclosure is a 10gal which we will upgrade to a 20 to 40 gal in the future as our bp progresses. The substrate im using is coconut fiber with a UTH and a thermostat is being delivered tomorrow along with a digital thermometer/ hygrometer combo. I've covered the top with plastic to trap in humidity. At the moment, I feel like I'm fighting the changing conditions of New England with the temperature differences at the moment. My main question is will the animal impact the humidity vs the empty enclosure? I've been trying to research this but i guess this isn't a typical question? Any help or input would be great. I have not finished the enclosure since i don't have and hides in there yet, as I'm not sure of the exact size our bp will start at and i may need to add a wider water bowl to assist the humidity. Also knowing the water bowl needs to be filled with purified water, is this the same type of water that needs to be sprayed in the enclosure as well or is tap water ok? Our tap water does not have any trace of ammonia or chlorine in it and we use this in our aquarium.

Thanks in advance! We're super excited to get our bp!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
I'm so glad you clarified the "ate cooking" part...I was thinking you must be hungry & your subconscious mind did the typing. There are NO recipes here for BP-stew!

As others said, you'll have to tweak ANY enclosure as seasons change. A larger water bowl CAN improve humidity IF it's partly over UTH heat. Many of my snakes
LOVE their 'humid-hides' -filled with sphagnum moss (soaked & mostly squeezed out before using). Even if not shedding, it feels natural to them.

Your animal won't be breathing out enough humid air to impact the reading in the cage. As far as "purified" water versus tap, purified will reduce the water spots* left by
the minerals in the water, but honestly I use tap water anyway. (our local water tests pretty clean & safe) I do remember reading that you should never use "distilled"
water for herps though, they need the trace minerals & distilled can mess them up somehow. (*& an effective mildly-germicidal thing to wipe down a cage with is white
vinegar, which will get rid of hard water deposits anyway. I especially use it in water bowls...& obviously you do need to rinse it.)

Congratulations on your new ball python!