Anyone that tells you not to worry about humidity except for clean sheds doesn't know a damn thing about the environment where these animals are found in the wild. Rain forests gets rain more than half the days in the year. They recieve at least 80 inches of rain a year, usually more - like around 200 inches a year. There is no wet season or dry season, like the Savannahs in Africa. It rains all year long. It rains during the day, stops at night, the water evaporates and condenses on the leaves, then it drips all night long. The freaking place is just plain wet. Also, regarding temperature, the average high throughout the year varies less than 5 degrees, with the coolest average high temp being about 86 degrees and the warmest average high being about 89 degrees. The coolest average low at night is about 68 degrees and the warmest average low is about 71 degrees. Bottom line is - when in doubt, imitate nature. Here's what I do. It's pretty inexpensive, and it works great. The best part is, you don't have to mist your cage all the time.

Go to Petco and pick up a couple terrarium humidifier(s) since you have two cages. I forget who makes them, but Petco recently started carrying them. They work like this: They have a water reservoir which has a big sponge in it that stays moist and humidifies the air in the reservoir. Air gets pumped in to the water reservoir via a seperate air pump. The air circulates through the humidifier and travels through an outlet hose and into your terrarium(s). You can completely seal off your terrarium because the air pump is constantly pumping fresh air into it. The humidifiers cost about $20 bucks each. They don't come with an air pump, so go to the fish department, and grab an aquarium air pump with two output nozzles - one nozzle for each humidifier. There's different models for different size aquariums/terrariums. It will cost you about $15 to $30 depending on the flow rate of the pump and the quality of the brand you go with. The quieter ones are more expensive. Each humidifier comes with a hard plastic tube with tiny holes in it that that pumps humid air directly into the terrarium. If the cage gets too humid, just increase ventilation slightly until you maintain the right humidity level. The reservoir water lasts well over a week, so you won't be constantly refilling it. This setup along with a water bowl keeps my boa cage at a constant 75% humidity without needing to mist whatsoever. That means no water spots on the glass, no wet substrate, and therefore, no nasty mold, fungus, etc, no scale rot, and no shed problems. The air that is pumped in is not hot either, so it won't make your cage too hot. You also won't have to make your entire snake room uncomfortably humid. Obviously, my method is geared for people with only a few snake cages.

I hope this helps!

Tyler

[ Hide Replies ]

• Can't get humidity right for the life of me. - drasticplastic, Tue Jun 22 21:06:56 2004
• RE: Can't get humidity right for the life of me. - Chris Olson, Tue Jun 22 21:39:59 2004
• RE: Can't get humidity right for the life of me. - diggy415, Tue Jun 22 21:55:45 2004
• Chris......I live in California, about 30 miles south of san francisco. np - drasticplastic, Tue Jun 22 22:17:58 2004
• RE: Chris......I live in California, about 30 miles south of san francisco. np - BennyD, Wed Jun 23 10:39:47 2004
• Ok here is what I'm going to try....let me know what you think guys. - drasticplastic, Tue Jun 22 22:31:55 2004
• Covering the vent works great, But..I think Chris is right - tomas, Tue Jun 22 22:36:11 2004
• horrible advice... - Jonathan_Brady, Wed Jun 23 11:08:58 2004
• RE: Ok here is what I'm going to try....let me know what you think guys. - boidmorphs, Tue Jun 22 22:49:27 2004
• Save your money on the humidifier - Brocks Boids, Wed Jun 23 08:31:46 2004
• try doing this - onlyboas, Tue Jun 22 23:51:04 2004
• More ideas... - triniian, Wed Jun 23 01:31:44 2004
• My solution - snakepimp, Wed Jun 23 11:08:24 2004
• Try not using the light and using some kind of under tank heater.... - munchkins, Wed Jun 23 13:32:50 2004
• RE: Can't get humidity right for the life of me. - tmflyfish, Wed Jun 23 14:33:20 2004
• another cheaper solution - tmflyfish, Wed Jun 23 14:38:07 2004
• I've found the name of the humidifier..... - tmflyfish, Wed Jun 23 14:48:39 2004