Humidity???

[munchie321]

Hello,
Im a beginner in snakes and i have only had corn snakes, at the moment the snake is in a small plastic viv due to his size, i was reading a book and the book mentions humidity, it mentions things like humidity chambers, i was wondering are they nesserary??? It also mentions spraying the viv to make it humid, if i spray the viv how many times does this needed to be done?? it has a bowl of water in the viv, would this provide a ok amount of humidity in the viv???:confused: :confused: :confused:

[sapphire_moon]

for a corn snake, house humidity should be fine, and mist it's cage when in shed to up the humidity. Right now my my corn is in shed, and my ROOM humidity WAS at 21-22 percent (even I was waking up with blood noses) so we got a humidifier and my room humidity is up to 30 percent now.

If you want to know specfic humidity go get a hygrometer (sp?) or a digi thermom with a humidity gauge and put it in the tank.

[munchie321]

when you say mist, is that to spray the viv with a water gun, if so where do i spray it, ie, the snake itself. also my snake is in a little viv due to his size, so where do i spray it??

[sapphire_moon]

Just spray anywhere in the enclosure. As long as the cage is a good size to the snake it don't really matter. You can spray the snake itself (if it is out and roaming) or just spray the substrate. I usually don't even look when I mist the cage. lol

[josefg]

I have to disagree with sapphire_moon. It is generally beleived that normal house humidity is enough for a corn snake however if you look at recent threads you'll see that there were some people who's corns were having bad sheds. Also on page 17 of <i>The Corn Snake Manual</i> it says "The lower relative humidity even inside typical homes in such climates [refering to South Eastern U.S.] may cause incomplete shedding or dehydration probles that are not suspected at first."

A humidity chamber, or humid hide, is not really necessary provided that you give enough humidity to your snakes. If you keep it in a low humidity environment, then a humid hide box will help the snake to shed it's skin. In my room the humidity varies between 50% in very hot summer to 85% in winter and so I've never had the need for a humid hide box.

From here we cannot tell you how many times you need to spray in your vivarium because we don't know the conditions. Like sapphire_moon suggested the best way to know this is to get a humidity gauge. When spraying you should spray in the vivarium not on the snake.

The water bowl may be enough to keep the humidity up in you vivarium if you don't have a screen top vivarium because they don't keep the humidity. The water bowl should also be on the hot side for it to increase the humidity.

Sorry for the long post and hope this helps.

[munchie321]

thanx josef

[Invictus]

Sorry Josef, I have to diagree with you on this one. :) I have 8 corns in my house, where the humidity is never above 20%. (Calgary is notoriously dry.) I don't even up the humidity during shed time, and not one of my corns, baby OR adult, has ever had an incomplete shed. They are not just from Florida you know. Corns can be found in almost any climate throughout the eastern US, and that includes extremely dry climates.

[Auskan]

Since Munchie321 lives in the UK, I would guess that humidity levels there are generally much higher than for some of the dryer areas of the US & Canada. Therefore, I wouldn't think that a humidifier or misting would be necessary. However the best way to know, as others have said is to get a hygrometer so that you can more accurately measure the humidity levels. Corns are pretty adaptable and can thrive in a variety of different conditions.

[josefg]

Originally posted by Invictus
Sorry Josef, I have to diagree with you on this one. :) I have 8 corns in my house, where the humidity is never above 20%. (Calgary is notoriously dry.) I don't even up the humidity during shed time, and not one of my corns, baby OR adult, has ever had an incomplete shed. They are not just from Florida you know. Corns can be found in almost any climate throughout the eastern US, and that includes extremely dry climates.

No problem man ;) that's the fun of being in a forum :D I was led to that beleif because I saw 2 threads last week both because of humidity/shed related problems. I just said what I felt about the question and while checking the bible (aka The Corn Snake Manual) I saw that the authors felt as I did.

:)

[marisa]

I think you are both right.

Certain individuals may need a humid bump during shed, while others do not :D

Just like how one of mine loves her 90F hot spot, but my male prefers 81-85 most days. :)

Marisa