Humidity Too High

[Neon Aurora]

I just moved my yellow anaconda to his new home; an Animal Plastics enclosure.


But I'm having huge problems with the humidity. It just maxes out. I baked all of his substrate in the oven until it was bone dry. He has a huge water container because he likes to spend around 80% of his time in the water. This is the only source of moisture in there, but after a few hours the humidity goes up to 99%. I even cut a hole in the lid for the container and have the lid on so less moisture escapes.


What can I do to lower the humidity? I didn't think it would be so much of a problem when I bought the cage.

[Andy_G]

Is the water container over/under a heat source?

[kudzu]

When I spoke to AP about a custom cage, I asked about adding ventilation later if needed. She mentioned using a router or a drill, with standard wood bits. You can add holes &/or slits to let more moisture out. If needed, you could use a small fan to rig something like an exhaust fan. I've got some little USB powered fans that move a surprising amount of air for their size, yet are very quiet.


Just an idea.

ETA: Also, someone mentioned making sure there are vents in both the lower & upper areas of the walls to encourage more airflow.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I've been having the same problems since the temps started to drop, because of the difference in temps in and out of the enclosure. It's still too warm to use a space heater, but once I start running that I'm sure it will dry things out a bit.

I'm not sure of the exact situations of your home, but have you tried a room dehumidifier? How do you heat the enclosure? Do the cages have the normal amount of ventilation?

It's likely that the humidity is just going to stay high with the huge water dish in there, AP cages hold humidity quite well, and a large surface area of water will easily overload the air space with moisture. I would not sacrifice the water dish, however, considering annie's semi-aquatic nature. As long as the humidity is not resulting in mold growth or condensation, honestly, I don't think a high humidity is all that detrimental. Just clean everything regularly and she should be fine.

[Neon Aurora]

No, the water source is not over the UTH.

I could put holes in it. That might be a good solution, although I'm not sure how things will be in the winter. It gets really, really dry in the winter. I also did consider something like a computer fan to go on the outside of the ventilation slits to encourage airflow.

A room dehumidifier wouldn't be terribly useful. I live in a desert where it's normally like 30% humidity or less. It's been a little more humid lately because of rain, but that's not typical. The enclosure is heated using a UTH. The cages have pretty conservative ventilation. Slits in the corns and on the back of the cage. Only on the top.

I'm definitely keeping his water source. He loves it. I've only seen him out of it for like 10 minutes so far. I don't think mold should be an issue, but I'm just worried about him getting a respiratory infection. Surely 99% humidity can't be good for his lungs long term?

[kudzu]

I could put holes in it. That might be a good solution, although I'm not sure how things will be in the winter. It gets really, really dry in the winter.


If you chose to add more holes it would seem easy enough to cover those come Winter. Something as simple as small pieces of vinyl or thin plastic attached to the outside of the cage with like Command strips.

Again, just an idea. Not trying to push it.

[Scubadiver59]

Duck Tape to the rescue!!! :rolleyes:

If you chose to add more holes it would seem easy enough to cover those come Winter. Something as simple as small pieces of vinyl or thin plastic attached to the outside of the cage with like Command strips.

Again, just an idea. Not trying to push it.

[Neon Aurora]

You're right, that is an easy fix. I suppose I'm hesitant about altering it permanently. I think I might have to, though. The way that thing holds humidity is insane. Living in a desert, I have always struggled with keeping the humidity high enough, not usually the other way around. Even with more holes, I think I might still need a fan to circulate the air.

[Scubadiver59]

The humidity with the gas furnaces (dual zone) in my house takes the humidity down to the 30% range, and I don't have humidifiers attached to my 16yr old systems, so I feel your "humidity" pain.

You're right, that is an easy fix. I suppose I'm hesitant about altering it permanently. I think I might have to, though. The way that thing holds humidity is insane. Living in a desert, I have always struggled with keeping the humidity high enough, not usually the other way around. Even with more holes, I think I might still need a fan to circulate the air.

[Neon Aurora]

Okay, I will try some things and let you know what works. A fan might be the first thing I try, and then some more holes if it's not enough.


Here is my guy enjoying his pool. =) It has a lid on it now with a hole for him to go in and out of.


https://i.imgur.com/2AlUCZT.jpg

[phenyx]

The lid should help keep the humidity in the pool rather than evaporating into the air.

[Neon Aurora]

That's the idea. It's not working that well, though.

[craigafrechette]

He looks gorgeous!!! A yellow is one my my dream snakes, but likely will never happen. I'd love to see more pics if you can.

As for the humidity, everything I would have said has already been mentioned. Good luck though.

[Neon Aurora]

Sure! Once I have a minute, I'll post more pics.

I'm loving the new set up. He seems to feel a lot less threatened now that I can come at him from the front and not above (his previous enclosure was top-opening). I've started some hook training with him to make him safer to deal with. The nice thing is that if he gets worried, he retreats into his pool. Since it has a lid, it becomes impossible for him to bite me, so I am free to touch his body with my hands safely. He actually hasn't stuck at me or the hook a single time since he's been in there, so I think with a lot of patience, I might be able to get him comfortable with my hands. Don't think I'll ever really trust him, but it would be nice to make him a little safer to deal with.

Before anyone gets concerned, he is small. Only 6 foot. I'm not endangering myself.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Glad to hear he's gotten so settled in! It's way more enjoyable imo to have a happy, comfy snake. :) He's a gorgeous annie, so bright yellow!

[Neon Aurora]

Thanks! I agree, much more enjoyable now that he is happier and more comfortable.


Here are a few more pics of him:


https://i.imgur.com/1It0vpM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/b5z6WBx.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/KW7syMM.jpg

[Roman]

How big is your enclosure?


I suppose since these snakes come from the pantanal they are used to a lot of water and high humidity (not an Eunectes expert myself, but did a little reading).

Just keep in mind that these snakes have a distribution where the winter can get quite cold (Northern Argentina could very well get freezing temperatures), so keep them with lower temps for at least 8 to 12 weeks.

[Neon Aurora]

The enclosure is 4 x 2 x 2. I know they live near water and whatnot, but all of the caresheets I've read by other people who keep them say they like 50-60% humidity. 99% seems a bit excessive.

I've never really purposely cooled him before, but because of the location of his enclosure, temperatures naturally get cooler in the winter. I live in a place with hot summers (sometimes 100+ F) and cold winters (sometimes below 20 F). Right now the warm side is around 88-90 F and the cool side is about 75 F.

[Roman]

4 ft seems a little on the small side, especially with the need for a large water bowl. Personally I would provide something like 6 or 7 ft long (at least)…

I found a care sheet (which seems relatively reasonable to me) recommending a minimum humidity of 70 to 80 %.--> http://madisonherps.org/guwp/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/YellowAnaconda.pdf

All care information I found here in Germany suggest at least a short hibernation period for the yellow Anaconda, that’s what I meant in my previous post.

[Neon Aurora]

I've been through the discussion on enclosure size before, and there seems to be a lot of different opinions. I went with the 4 x 2 x 2 because the main things I heard from people were 1 square foot of space per foot of snake (I have 8 square feet and a 6 foot snake), and then I also heard length + width = length of snake which also fits my enclosure. I talked to several people who said it's okay to keep an 8 foot boa in a 4 x 2 x 2, so I figured a 6 foot snake would be fine in one. I do kind of wish I have gone bigger, but I just bought this thing so I can't just buy another one right away. I think it's fine, but maybe not fantastic or anything.

That is the first care sheet I've seen that says that. I still think it would be good to get some air circulation going.

I've never cooled him before, had him for 8 years, and it's never been a problem. But I will look into it.

[ClockwerkBonnet]

Whoa, that snout looks so narrow! I'm not saying that's an issue; it's just really cool.

[Neon Aurora]

Hmm, yeah, there does seem to be some variation on snout thickness from pictures I've seen. Some seem to have really fat heads and others taper to a point. I like his head shape. =)

I think he looks pretty comfortable in his enclosure. It's a work in progress, but I'm planning to add some stuff to utilize the vertical space.

I'm working on having an acrylic pool made that fits the dimensions of the enclosure better. That way he will just just as much water space but will have better use of his land space. Then I want to add sort of a shelf part of the way up so he can have a second story to hang out on and it will double to create somewhere to hide underneath it (I can use some draping decorations hanging off the shelf to create somewhere dark and secluded for him to hang out. He's also got the top of his pool to hang out on since it had a lid now, and then the water space underneath.

I'm pretty sure if I utilize all of the available space in the enclosure, it should be pretty comfortable for him.

[Neon Aurora]

I think I had a great idea over night.

I could make his pool external. Since PVC is so easy to work with, I could make a tunnel into an external acrylic pool. This way, he would have all of the land space in his enclosure and I could give him as much water as I want, really. It would give him a lot more space, and the extra benefit is the pool could be detachable for ease of cleaning. Because that is one thing that is bugging me right now about his pool. It seems like it's going to be hard to clean thoroughly, especially because he can be defensive.

Not to mention it would look really cool.

This would also make the humidity less of an issue.

[kudzu]

The Habitrail approach. I love it. Just make sure the lid on pool and pool connection to the cage are very strong and secure. (You'd do that anyway, but thought I'd mention it nonetheless.) Will you have a door to close off the pool from the cage?

And now I feel dumb. Because I thought of that approach as a way for you to later expand the living quarters, but didn't think of moving the pool out of the cage. You've got to share the final results with us.

[Neon Aurora]

Yes, of course they will be very secure. I always have a fear in the back of my mind that my annie will get out and eat my cats. I'm thinking I will use a PVC tube as the tunnel and silicone/glue/whatever it onto the hole in the wall of the enclosure. I'm less sure how to make it secure on the pool side. Has to be some kind of latching mechanism, I guess, so I can still take it out and clean it thoroughly.


I'd like to do a door, but I'm not that great at building things.


Maybe I should head over to the enclosure building subforum to get some ideas. I know someone who can cut holes in things for me and cut the acrylic, etc, but I don't want to bother him too much so would like to do most of it myself. I just can't cut nice holes or acrylic by myself.