Humidity Problems

[westherocker]

Hey I live in Central Florida and it is freezing here.... like 20's today.... but anyways, I just got this new heat lamp yesterday and my temps are high now, like 90's on the warm side and 80's on the cool side... the problem is that since I got the new lamp, my humidity has been dropping into 20 and 30%'s. any suggestions on how to get the humidity back up without dropping the temps? Heres the setup:



(I don't know if the picture worked....)

[Thedotw]

Hi. The pic didnt work.


Anyhow, Where in Central Florida are you?! I'm in Orlando, and it's like a steady 40-45 degrees out!


Down to business.....

Cheap version: Buy a normal spray bottle, and spray a mist or two in her tank, should be enough. You have to check on her every now and again though, to make sure she's fine.

More expensive version: Look into buying an automatic Mister, and go from there. I dont have one, so I cant tell you much about them, but that'd also help.




Another thing- If the temps on your warm side are in the 90s, I would think that's a little too high. if its in the LOW ninties, you'd have nothing to worry about, but make sure they dont get too high.

[Reptilian]

90-94 are a good range of temps for the warm side. Another way to bump the humidty it to buy a block of eco earth. You expand it and then mist it, it holds the humidity in very well.

There is a sticky somewhere around here on how to block off the lid with tin foil and tape. You cover like 2/3rds of it with foil and leave a hole for the lamp. I'll try and find the sticky.

[TanyaL]

I too am in central Florida, Hernando County, actually. It's freezing here right now. It's suppose to get down to the low teens tonight and our heater is out too boot. So, I'm having a heck of a time keeping temps up. I'm very much a night owl so I'll probably be keeping an eye on her all night long. I have a feeling it's going to be a battle between temp and humidity but I'll do my best. I had no idea that snakes were this much work. But, I'll admit it, it's been worth it. I just love watching this little girl move about the tank. How fun!

[reptile3]

I am in Northern Georgia, tonight is 16 outside... I have the temps right in the tank, but I am having issues too with the humidity, so this was a great post, now I know how to keep the humidity up!! Thanks

[NickP]

Souther California here (LA). My temps are always 81-83, 90-93 but humidity is always in the low 30s. One thing I did was add another water bowl to the side with the UTHs. That raised it a bit. I also wadded together some paper towels, and regularly mist them until soaking wet. Those make the humidity stay up for upto 5-6 hours instead of 3-4 during regular misting.

[jotay]

It's in the very low teens here and my heat runs non stop ( i frigging hate heat pumps ) so my humidity suffers even w/ a humidifer because the heat sucks the life out of it. Anyway I take a half sheet of the unprinted newspaper I use as substrate and do the ball up and wet deal and place it half over the warm side and this also helps keep the humidity up for a few hours.
Hope this helps.

[juddb]

When i used tanks a good trick i was doing was instead of misting the bedding i would mist the walls inside the enclosure and i would only have to do this twice a day to keep the humidity at about 50% also i had a decent sized ceramic dish right on top of the heat source. Also (just throwing this out there) with the right sized heat mat or flexwatt and a tstat you can keep temps up to par without a heat lamp. Duct tape the screen top and leave about 1/3 of it untaped and you should be good.

[icygirl]

I have a similar problem in winter when our heating system destroys the ambient humidity in the house. I recently came up with the ingeniously obvious solution: Get a humidifier for the room that your snakes are in. It has done wonders for me, and now my little Caspie actually comes out of her hide at night, looking much more content! And even when the humidifier is up pretty high, the room is still comfortable for me to be in. Even if the humidity doesn't go up to where you want it to, you can "supplement" with spraying the tank down a few times a day.

(By the way, if you see "dents" in your snake's eyes from low humidity, don't worry, just give her a nice long soak and she'll be good as new.)

[beardieguy]

i acutally used foam weather stripping to insulate the area around the lid and to cover 3/4 of the lid it makes a really tight seal around the tank. i still have to mist the tank 2 times daily but it drops at a less rate.also you could get a bigger water bowl and move it to the hot side of the tank.another thing im trying is the silk fake leaves by misting them too. its about 20 degrees in va right now and if i mist up to 65 percent at 7 30 am its about 45 percent when i get home from work at 6 30