Tank Humidity

[bbkaren]

(See, I told you we newbies would drive you crazy with all our questions!)

Okay, we've covered our albino burm's tank with a sheet of lucite (obviously cut out around the heat lamps on top of the screen). It seems to keep the air temperature at around 80 degrees which is a great improvement from the 72 it was previously!

The humidity is still an issue for us, as we have forced air heat and our house is really dry in the winter. I've heard some guidelines, and I'd like to clarify.

1. I've read about misting daily--we've bought the water bottle and have been doing that but it doesn't seem to raise the humidity in the actual tank; did we misunderstand and were supposed to mist the snake himself once a day and that would suffice? We've been misting the surface of the substrate above the heat mats, and his climb branch thinking the evaporation would add to humidity--but it never goes above around 10 percent. We also don't want any mildew or anything to develop!

2. We bought one of those waterfalls for the corner of the tank--it looks fabulous and splashes around nicely but still doesn't get the humidity up past 20 percent or so. We're considering adding a fogger to the waterfall but were told not to because it could increase the chances of mites (?)

3. We've also acquired an adult male ball python who was pretty badly neglected and are trying to improve his conditions--does he need the same humidity conditions as the burm?

4. Completely off-topic, is it okay to let my snake wander around the top of my desk as I'm working? (obviously keeping him out of the way of sharp stuff)? He won't eat anything he shouldn't, right? (a matchbox car for example! :)

Thanks as always for your help!

[moperri]

well first I might be a little confused about the questions but if I get them right here are some answers:
1 If your cage doesn't keep humidity look at how much ventilation you have if you cut that back your cage will be easier ti keep humid.
2 If you get your cage to have the proper amount of ventilation you will only neeed to mist your pets.
3 As far as balls go i keep mine at 70%-80% humidity.
4 And lastly if your snake wonders for a while on your desk he should be fine they do not tend to eat stuff that is not food but keep an eye on him they can get in trouble if they are left unsupervised.
I hope this helps if you have any more questions ask

[stormyva]

Need some more information....
Can you describe the cage for us.... ie: the material it is made out of and the size.
What type of thermometer are you using, digital or analog?
Are you sure that your hygrometer is accurate?
What are you using for a substrate in the cage?
Have you tried putting the water bowl directly under the heat lamp or over top of the UTH?

As for the ball python:
Ball Python:
Temperatures: Daytime: Hot: 90°-95° Cool: 80°-85°, Night Time: No lower than 73°-75°
Humidity: 60-65%
You will also want to keep the snakes seperate for at least 30 days. Seperate rooms would be even better, you dont want the ball python giving anything to your burm.
What kind of condition is the ball python in?
What does it appear to have wrong with it?

[bbkaren]

Hi and thanks for your advice! I hope I can remember all the questions.

For the burm, it's a 75 gallon glass tank with a screen top, but we've closed it in with lucite except for around the lights. The thermometers and humidity gauge are dial-type, cheapos, I know--but just wanted to have an idea (and didn't know it'd be so difficult to monitor!) The substrate is the type made of crushed walnut shells. The ball has the same situation, only it's a 30-gallon breeder tank (almost the same floor space, lower headroom).

Yes, the bowl sits on top of the heater. We have forced air heat which dries us all out terribly in the winter. I've ordered a fogger for each of their tanks and have, in exchange, returned the waterfall (which only splashed all over and made a mess--plus we always had the urge to pee when were were in that room! lol)

I hope this will take care of the situation--and admitting defeat with regard to the thermometers and humidity gauge, what ones do you recommend?

The snakes are in separate rooms (our bedroom tv fritzed out, so the ball's our replacement--plus he was being neglected so we had another excuse.)(we're discovering that there's always another excuse to get another pet). The ball python isn't in too bad shape now that we've removed him from the pile of old sheds and poop. He was in the middle of what looked like a perpetual shed of various stages. His eyes were the color of sterling silver, one had three caps on and the other had two. My hubby and I took two hours with him in the kitchen, letting him slide through our wet hands sloughing his shed and then rubbing the eye caps with our wet fingers, sliding them off one by one.

We're really new to this whole scene so the sliding eyecaps kept us nice and queasy. And the icing on the cake was when he finally decided he'd had enough and let loose the contents of his secret pocket (including giving us a good eyeful of the magic hemipenis, forever dispelling the previous owner's belief that he was a "she".) We nearly lost it then, but were able to keep it together for the cause! lol

I've attached a photo if you're interested, of the cage the burm is in. Burm is a baby, about 36" long, the ball is adult, about 48" long. He seems not too thin, yet his spine is very obvious so I guess he needs to put on some weight. Both are pretty timid and I guess will take a while to come out of their proverbial shells. Anyway, I've rambled enough. Thanks for all your help.

[stormyva]

Sounds like you are right on track with everything except the substrate. Get rid of the walnut shells and go with either repti-bark or cypress mulch substrate. The cypress mulch can be purchased from Home Depot for about $3.00 (US). It looks great and hold humidity very well. Which ever one you decide on, spray it with Provent-a-mite or Black Knight and allow it to air out before putting your snake back in the cage. Switch the substrate and you humidity levels should be right where they should be, the walnut shell will suck all the humidity out of the cage.<br>
For the heating in the cage.... move both of those lights off to one side so that the cage has a hot side and a cool side. The snake will decide for itself which side it needs to be on.
You may also want to replace the basket hides with something that will provide the snakes with a more secure and dark hiding places. You are right in having one on each side of the cage though.<br>
As far as the thermometer and hygrometer.... you can get an inexpensive digital at Home Depot or Wal-Mart.

Good luck!

[andrea]

i am having trouble with the humidity in my burm's glass tank. and i live in Louisiana, USA, so we have natural humidity that would drown any normal person.
also...we had cyprus mulch and the burm disappeared. he burrowed and we did not see him for four days. we took it back out cuz he was getting solitary not seeing us moving aroudn when we were in there. is that normal for burms? and do they NEED to burrow?

[nhherp]

I have friend who breeds these like mad, Check out her web site

at www. slitherdotcom.com

She can answer any questions you may have.

[stormyva]

A snake is going to do what a snake is going to do :)
If the Burm was burrowing it was more than likely becuase it felt insecure and wanted a nice place to hide. You can not expect your snake to be visible all of the time as most snake like to be out of sight. It is thier natural instinct, especially the small ones, to hide so that they dont become food.
Get rid of the walnut shell and go with cypress or reptibark and your humidity should go back up. Also move those heat lamps to the same side that you have the heat pad so that your Burm has a hot and cold side.

[andrea]

the cypress does help the humidity. the prob with mine was that he would poop down beneath it and we had horrid trouble finding it before he'd crawl through it, though he enjoyed the swimming baths he got to take, hehehe.
also, he got hunks of it in his mouth. never heard anyone else claim this, so maybe it is just mine, or either i am way too protective of him. i removed the cypress and put down newspaper, though i hate that. he has a huge rock hide that he stays in and i put a dish of cypress mulch beneath a heat lamp in there and keep it soaked, that has helped a bit iwth the humidity since we took the substrate out.

[bbkaren]

Well, in answer to the questions above, the left-hand light is a heat lamp (on only in daytime) and the right-hand one is just a ceramic heating fixture (on all the time). Warm (left) side stays around 90 or so and right side around 76. Is that a good enough gradient?

Foggers for both snakes will be here tomorrow so we're hoping to put them on timers and not worry about humidity anymore, (don't want to take chances if we forget to mist!) When we mist the 75 gallon tank goes to about 75% humidity (we got a new gauge as well, although the old one seems to be working again). And when we mist the 30 gallon tank it goes to about 90%. Both go back down to about 15 or 20% after an hour or two though. Hopefully the foggers will help that. Anyone have luck with those?

[andrea]

what is the optimal humidity and temp? my temps are the same as yours, and seems our humidity seems close. but mine doesnt get quite that high and i've caught it when i get up in the mornings down around 20 percent.

[SpongePat]

Just to beat the dead horse a little bit...change the substrate. ReptiBark is good...I don't know about Cypress Mulch, as I can't find it around here. I just switched all my cages over to coconut bark chips, and I could be more please. Looks good, holds humidity, and it is easy to clean. Also, if I could make another suggestion: I also keep my burm in a 75gal tank, and when I started having humidity problems, I went to Wally World and got myself a rather sizable water bowl that was designed for dogs. Having more water in the tank alone, will help with your humidity (that, and the thing is too heavy for her to knock over, unlike everything else I have in there.

Invest in a digital thermometer/hydrometer. I have an el-cheapo in the cage that I used to use, along with a fairly decent digital one that I also bought at Wally World, and they have completely different readings. When el-cheapo says 40% humidity, the good one says 70%

I guess if you want the full extent of how I fixed a similar problem, you can read this article (http://www.redtailboas.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=board7;action=display;num=1038532033 ). It was written for 40gal tanks, but it has worked well with my 75 gal (hot side of 90, ambient of 82). I also insulated the sides of the aquarium, because it is larger than a 40 gal.