Please keep at this as its very important. When you heat cages from above the lid, you are heating the air, from the top of the cage, to the bottom. The snake only cares about what he mass it sits on is, not the air. That hot air, rises up and takes the humidity/water, with it. You keep adding water in order to maintain that 40% or so. But as soon as you put it in, it goes right out the top and you have to do it again and again and again. Now imagine if that was you in there. You would be sick as a dog.



I now and have for 50 years, put the lite fixture and the lite, in the cage. And then cover the lid. When you do that, you can use a much smaller bulb, to achieve the same heat. So what wattage are you using and what sized cage.



When you place the bulb in the cage, you can use 25 watts or even 15 watts, or those new screwball bulbs, they are not hot enough to burn anything, muchless the snake. In 50 years, I have not burned a kingsnake yet.



One friend of mine, avoids all that by covering the top using a lite outside the cage, on one side. aimed at one corner. There are many ways to do this.



When pet shops sell that stuff, got me, my dark side says, to kill the animals so you can buy more. My other side says, they simply could care less and leave it up to you.



But, if you do not heat the cage, not lites or pads etc. and only go by room temps. Then that lessens the problem a whole lot.

Heres a way for you to learn(if you want) get another tank just like the one your using. Set it up with the lites on top, just like your doing now. Do not cover the lid at all. only no snakes inside. put in a water bowl and measure how fast the water evaporates. Do not add water. measure how long it take to evaporate all the water. The cover half the lid, and test again. Then put the lites inside and completely cover the lid and test again. Remember, when you put the lites inside, only use enough wattage to have the same temps you had before.

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