Help with Care.

[deeplove]

What can I use to keep the humidity up other than spraying in the tub? For now, I have a large bag of aspen and when I'm done with that, I'll be going with a moisture retaining substrate. My humidity is hovering on 43% - 49%.

I will go for the UTH next week. I see that it's harder with the lamps to keep the humidity and temps straight. For the 66qt tub, how big does the UTH have to be? Mind you, I'm going with the ZooMed UTH since it's readily available for me. I'm a couple of block away from Petsmart.

I'll be using the Rheostat with it for the time being.

My problem right now is keeping the humidity up.

[Ginevive]

Hm.. heat lamps will dry the cage out, making humidity retention a bit more difficult. Is it a cage with a screen lid? If so, I would cover most of the lid with saran wrap, leaving maybe one-tenth open for airflow.
A ZM heatpad with the rheostat will work fine if your room stays at a good strady temperature of around 75-80. I actually use these heatpads in my rack, and they have always served me well. They do get too hot without the rheostat though!

[Ginevive]

Hm.. heat lamps will dry the cage out, making humidity retention a bit more difficult. Is it a cage with a screen lid? If so, I would cover most of the lid with saran wrap, leaving maybe one-tenth open for airflow.
A ZM heatpad with the rheostat will work fine if your room stays at a good strady temperature of around 75-80. I actually use these heatpads in my rack, and they have always served me well. They do get too hot without the rheostat though!

Sorry, I just saw that you switched to the tub Tubs hold in humidity pretty well; sometimes, too well. I would cover some of the holes you drilled in with plastic wrap (taped to the outside of the tub so that the snake can't get to the tape if it were to stick its tongue through the hole somehow.)

[deeplove]

Question on the Cypress Mulch. I went to Home Depot and they had a couple of Mulch bags there. Of course, Cypress was one of them. I'm having problems keeping my humidity higher that 33%. I'm using a tub. 60qt. It's fairly low profile. Thin but long and wide.

When I looked at the mulch, it was pretty broken up and had a lot of dust. Some other Mulch were bigger and had less dust or particles. Especially the Red Mulch.

My question... Can I buy the Mulch at Home Depot and which one?



That's the current setup. I know that the fish tank is a complete eyesore, but I'll be hanging or getting some stands for the lights till I get money for the UTH. I'm strapped with cash at the moment.

[Sunny1]

Hmmmmm.. I am wondering how you are measuring your humidity? Are you using a digital hygrometer? I have one girl in a tub right now (my other girl is getting switched in the next few days to a tub) and with my tub, when I first set it up, I had to put in a bunch of holes to keep humidity down. I wonder if the lights are still sucking the humidity out, even in a tub set up?? I use newspaper and a very small waterbowl in my tub, and when she knocks some water out or when she goes potty, the humidity sky rockets. I think for now I would just keep misting the aspen in your tub, to bring up humidity to 50 - 60%, it may change and be easier to maintain once you get your UTH.

As far as the cypress at home depot, you can use it, I would just check to make sure that it is not a cypress blend. The Home Depot near me carries a blend, but does not list what the "blend" is so I have never used it just to be safe (since pine and cedar are both harmful to BPs). If you do use it, I would bake it before putting it into your enclosure, to kill off any bugs, etc. that may be in there. I don't believe that any of the bugs would harm your snake, it's just more of an annoyance in having extra lil critters running around your tub.

Good Job so far in getting your BP into a much better environment!!

[deeplove]

The Fluker's Digital Thermometer / Hygrometer is what I'm using.

Right now I sprayed inside to moisten things up and it's hanging at 69% - 70%. I hope that's fine. I'll check back in a few to see if it stays there. If so, then misting the pad would be ideal. I'm sure I wouldn't have this problem with a UTH. But for now, this must do.

I was reading on the Cypress Mulch and it seems to be some what of a headache just to put it in there. Boiling, heating and stuff...

I want to do the most minimal of work. I'm lazy.

But I'm going to see how this works out. I need to get a red bulb for the night time and another lamp. The black light is keeping the cool side in the 80s. If I put the day light with the red light on a timer, I'm sure that I won't mess with the whole daylight cycle. Correct me if I'm wrong.

He's roaming around more and I hope that he'll eat soon, but for now I'm really trying to keep it as minimal until I get some money. This was all given to me other than the tub, thermometer and the aspen.

[missi182]

if your lazy i would reallly go with newspaper. Its easy to clean and see poop/urates quickly. Its cheap and many people around here use it. For the day night cycle the red bulbs are still very bright so for now I dont know how much of a day night cycle your going to achieve and if you were going to purchase another lamp i wouldnt bother. The price you will pay for a red bulb and another lamp will be as much as a UTH. If you cant afford a good thermostat, just get a lamp dimmer from the hardware store to turn the UTH down, but be sure to measure the temp often of the UTH.

[missi182]

Simplified- You could use the lamp and black light you have over the cooler side and grab a UTH with a dimmer for the warm side, and newspaper for substrate. IMO you dont really need a day night cycle, they like dark, so if its dark all of the time, all the better.

[littleindiangirl]

I'm surprised your only reading 30% with a tub and living in florida. If you have the extra dough, I would get another hygrometer. I always had a problem with too much humidity, and I live in Michigan!

I'm pretty confident that the hygrometer is not reading correctly.

I don't think you should have said your lazy about the husbandry on a forum of people crazy about reptiles.

If your having problems with temps coming through from the UTH, then remove that thick layer of substrate. They really dont need that much, even more so when they have adequate hiding spaces.

If you want to be lazy about his husbandry, then use newspaper.

Get rid of the heat lamps and see if you cant rely solely on the UTH for heat. He should have a gradient, a hot spot around 90 degrees. The cool side can be 80. With those heat lamps gone, your humidity will raise up.

Let us know how it goes. There are many excellent points in this thread. Maybe you should reread the first post by GA_Ballpythons. She has an excellent write up that will help you.

[missi182]

I dont think he has a UTH yet. Correct me if Im wrong.