Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am having a problem keeping the humidity up in my new ball rack from Vision. I switched over to aspen bedding, then I noticed some problems with shedding. So I switched some over to newspaper, but not helping much, plus it doesn't look as nice and is more of a pain to clean up. I know if I fill in the breather holes in the top it should make the local humidity higher, but I am not sure what to fill it with. I was thinking hotglue because with the little angles and things tape would be a pain to cut to fit. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
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1.21 ball pythons
1 speckled kingsnake
1 snapping turtle
1.0 argentine horned frog
1.1 English Bulldogs

It holds moisture better. You can dump a bowl of water in there and it absorbs, without getting moldy. It's what I use for my Borneo which has higher humidity requirements than the ball pythons.
Hope this is helpful.
BRGDS,
A.
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"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"
COLD BLOOD.........WARM HEART

Other similarly designed racks ie. Freedom Breeder, Barrs CB-70 etc, have these issues because your heating from the bottom up through the aspen or other bedding and pushing that hot air and humidity directly to the top through the air holes.

1. You can make more humidity in the room the rack is in by using a humidifier that works great and is easier then controlling just one level at a time.

2. Use a thin sheet of plastic under the upper bin, I find 1 ply plastic or 2 ply plastic from Home depot works well but it gives a snugger fit. The vision rack is slightly adjustable for this idea.

3. Daily direct misting of the snake or soak your snake twice a week for a coupl eof hours at a time and you will see the beneifits of this in many ways. Snakes tend to draw water through there renal glands (anus) while they soak.

Hope this info helps, I have uses all three solutions over the past 15 years and many times especially in the winter I have had to use two out of the three because of the dry winters of were i am located.

misting is useless.........especially for these racks.........I have 2 of the same style ..homemade wooden ones.....and you cannot "mist" the cage........

I heat the whole room and it IS humid in the cellar....

and I DUMP quarts of water into the cypress mulch not mist it......
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are they really?.....wow

Crikeym, were do you live ...Death Valley??? I thought it was dry here.. Misting twice a day and soaking a stubborn shed has worked well for many years for several people.

I live in Lancaster Pa........and like I said my basement is humid bigtime........yet those cages with no tops dry out too too fast.........

.......and I do not have time to mist anything 2 times a day and I do not have to soak balls...........or corns or milks or whatever...

it is so humid in my room that I cannot keep Pituophis( bulls /gophers) for more than a year or two before they develop problems.....

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cypress and a cup or two of warm water will work fine......

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pet shop near here had an emerald boa....big import...asked me an opinion........I told them dump a gallon of water in cage is a good start.....they misted it a little.......it died....fast..........(it had 5 inches of mulch and needed water badly).....
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are they really?.....wow

I mist 2 times a week and have no problems guess it all depends on were you live or keep your racks.I also use repti bark its pricey but works great for holding moister.I had no luck with aspen or paper to dry I guess.

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Vince Pramuk

cypress........Lowe's...$2.99 for ? like 40 pounds?........
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are they really?.....wow

((.......and I do not have time to mist anything 2 times a day and I do not have to soak balls...........or corns or milks or whatever... ))

Sounds like you have to much and should probably lighten your load since you don't have the time to make sure these anaimls are properly hydrated..There's a poster on this board that say, It's not how many snakes you have, it's how happy and healthy you keep them... That is so True when it comes to time management..Time management is a huge portion of having a large collection... Like I said in a pryor post, Soaking your snakes is really the best way to hydrate them not to mention everyone loves a bath.. Soaking does so much good for a snake, things like better digestion, higher fecundity rate..water is the source of life....

Just curious...

Think there are many ways to skin a cat (so to speak)...
Different methods work for different situations. All keepers have strong opinions on what is the best method.
No need to Pass judgement.
Best regards,
A.
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"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"
COLD BLOOD.........WARM HEART

I keep several, the judgement comes from his admitted lack of time to do things that many feel are essential to keeping your snakes healthy. If someone doesn't have enough time for what they have it takes away from the entire collection. Jvone or what ever his id is made a narrow statement to use only one kind of substrate and told the other guy to just dump lots of water on it. This is not the perfect solution, I guess I just see a difference when offering three options against one demand...

Like you, I have several snakes and I am obsessive and compulsive about their care.

I was very surprised how much more work it was going from keeping a single snake, to keeping 9.
The moderate to Large breeders who have 100's to thousands of snakes, have many more efficient methods for maintaining the husbandry requirements of their large collection. The tips I have recieved from the experienced breeders ( Like Steve Roussis, Mark Mandic,& Ted Thompson) have proved invaluable, enabling me to expand (and hopefully continue to expand),maintain and enjoy my collection, while still leading a very Busy life.
What Jhoye suggests is common practice, not neglectful, as was implied.

Listen,and keep an open mind. Difference of opinion on husbandry methods is not a personal attack.

MHO,
A.
P.S accidentlally posted thisin wrong place earlier....
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"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"
COLD BLOOD.........WARM HEART

Ted Thompson.............!

cool.........

I like Ted........I'll see him tomorrow..........

...............

.......a long long time ago I was talking with a corn legend named Z uchowski..........

he told me.........

"just because 2 people tell you 2 exact opposite things on the same subject (solutions) doesn't mean they both aren't correct".....there are many ways to do things so LISTEN to everything....and remember it all.........!
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are they really?.....wow

It's J Yohe.....as in Yo ........

.......I used paper for 15 years and more......

mulch sucks in alot of ways..and snakes can and will die from eating it........

but paper is dirtier in the short term.....

cypress is a good moisture solution.......

I am again experimenting with "humid hides" for balls....like 6 month old babies.....they do NOT use them at all...they hide behind them.......just wanted to do it agin an see if they didn't use them ........they don't

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are they really?.....wow

np
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"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"
COLD BLOOD.........WARM HEART

I have a small number of snakes right now till the kiddies hatch.....maybe 200?.......plus 1000 mice and 20 gerbils and 60 chinese hamsters and a dozen Djungarian hamsters and 8 tanks of Peromyscus leucopus and 2 tanks of pygmy mice and maybe 1.7 rats and a dog a wife and a fulltime job.......

been doing this for yearsssss.........

and my snakes are "properly" humid and clean.......and fed......

Thanxx......

you wanna help clean Sunday morning?............
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are they really?.....wow

I would like to thank everyone for their input. At this time I am going to try the cypress mulch and dump a quart of water into each bin to see if that works. I have tried adding humidity to that room with no avail, it seems like the aspen sucks it all out. If this doesn't work then I will try some of the plastic sheeting from Home Depot. This low humidity thing is weird to me since I live on the bayou in southern Louisiana. I have never heard anyone talking about low humidity here, that's for sure.

Is it rigid, easy to cut, and where do I find it there?

Once again thank you for help, I have to go move to the quarter for a while now so I can deal with the Mardi Gras crowds. If anyone is coming down for Mardi Gras you can find me at the door, just look at my alias and you will be able to figure out what bar I work at.
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1.21 ball pythons
1 speckled kingsnake
1 snapping turtle
1.0 argentine horned frog
1.1 English Bulldogs

We covered ours with simple home depot shrink wrap window sealing sheets, $6.49 for a 3 pack of 42 x 62 inch. You mount two sided tape, apply sheet, trim excess, heat with blow dryer and done. You can then go to a few side holes in youe tub or just repoke a subset of the holes in the top through this sheet to reduce the total number of open holes. It works pretty well on lots of screen top enclosures as well. And it's removable.
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Mike and David at 3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com