shed and humidity questions

[lucky8926]

I think my new bp is about to shed. His eyes have a slight "cloudy" look. This is my first snake so I really don't have anything to reference to. The humidity is around 47% which when i asked before everyone said it was fine but when he sheds to raise the humidity. What is the preferred humidity during a shed? I have a big water dish. His enclosure is a 29 gal tank sitting on it's side and I made a sliding plexiglass front to keep heat/humidity in but I haven't seen the humidity go above 52% I did a search for humidity but couldn't come up with much.

[BornboreD]

I've never really payed attention to how high the humidty gets when I mist.... I'd say around 70%, but it's never constantly that high. Whenver I notice when of mine are in shed (clouded eyes), I just give the warm end of the enclosure a light misting before I got to bed, just enough to make the side of the tubs fog up a little, that way humidity drops back down to normal by the morning. I'm no expert by any means, but that's what I do and I've had perfect sheds everytime.

[lucky8926]

i'm a little leary about misting since I use aspen as a substrate and i've read that it molds pretty easy when it gets wet. will a light misting be ok with aspen?

[Slannesh]

There's a big difference between 'wet' and 'misted' I use aspen as well and never have problems with mold when I mist it lightly.

Where I live in the winter we typically have almost no humidity in my house (typically under 10%) So I always have to keep a close eye on it. Things that can help keep the humidity up:

Keep the water dish over your UTH, you'll have to refill it more often but it will help raise the ambient humidity.

Mist daily when you notice your snake going 'blue' don't soak everything, just a light misting shouldn't be a problem with Aspen.

Because the ambient humidity in my house is so low and I don't use a rubbermaid ( I have a side vented glass terrarium) I also provide a shoebox sized moist hide with damp sphagnum moss as well. He doesn't normally use it but is usually in there a lot the few days before he sheds.

[lucky8926]

where can I get sphagnum moss? Do they have it at wal-mart?

[cjice]

Im sure they do, I got mine at Meijers in the plant/gardening section.

[lucky8926]

ok, thanks!

[lucky8926]

I picked up some sphagnum moss today but i'm not sure it's the right stuff. It says in big letters "Peat Moss" and above it in smaller letters it says "canadian sphagnum" It looks like dry potting soil. Is this the right stuff? I'm using a small plastic container with a hole near the top. It is big enough for him to get into but it's clear. Should I do something to make it "not clear"?

[Slannesh]

Nope, peat moss is totally different.

Spagnum moss is sometimes also called "Green moss" It's commonly used in crafting or flower arranging.

I get mine at a store called Michael's. it's a bulk craft store but i'm sure walmart should sell it too. pretty much any store with a flower arranging section should carry it.

Now I THINK you can use peat moss to make a humid hide as well, but i'd imagine it'd be a lot messier. Though I can't say for sure as i've never used it. Perhaps someone could shed (ha ha) some light on the topic of Peat as a substrate in a humid hide?

[lucky8926]

It did seem kind of messy. It's got the consistency of dirt. I wet it then packed it down and put a layer of papertowel over the top of that to keep it from getting all over him.

[lucky8926]

Oh yea I put a hygrometer *sp?* in the moist hide and it was like 90%. Is that too high? The papertowel is damp but not soaking wet. I put the hide on the hot side and removed a little substrate so the inside temp would raise a little bit and put the temp probe inside. It is holding steady at about 93. How does all this sound?

[Ptindy]

That's sounds good. Try it out and see if it works. Experienting is what made this hobby what it is today.

Mike