Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The vet I took my ball to for a check up advised me to keep the enclosure at 40% humidity...this seems rather low to me. I didn't voice my opinion because I do not have the background to do so. I would like some input from you guys who are experienced. Since this is the same vet that said my ball doesn't show signs of RI when I could her a faint whistling sound from her mouth occassionaly, maybe I should try a different vet (trying to get Stahl but he seems very busy now with seminars and such). I have been administering baytril now for a week just in case. I thought humidity should be in the area of 60-80%

Time for a new vet!

If you can HEAR wheezing, and all the vet did was shove meds at you, he needs a course in herps.

Temps need to be up and humidity for a small or beginning of a resp should be more like 90%!

I would LOVE to have a vet tell me my ball python needs 40% humidity when it's wheezing, I'd give him/her a lesson in herps and let them know I would be taking it further. Vets that are not trained in treating reptiles usually just 'wing it', which causes way too many deaths!

Jessy

She said she took the snake to the vet for a CHECK_UP, at which time he reccomended 40% humidity. As far as general maintainance for a BP...40% is darn near perfect in my experience. BPs don't require anything more than that under normal conditions. IN fact for a BP, a blood, or even a GTP, too much humidty is far worse than too little. This is a very common husbandry mistake. The obvious time in which it would be good for the humidity to be a bit higher is when the snake is in a shed cycle.

My snakes get room humidty, which can be in the 20s or 30s during the winter in my house, exept during shedding where I'll mist and/or dampen the substrate a bit. I have never (in more than 10 years) had an RI. People that insist on mainting an artifically high humidity are opening themselves up to scale rot, etc.

When i first read the post, I was like "What's wrong with 40% humidity?" I am no breeder of balls for sure, but have kept them numerous times throughout the years. A wild ball is subject to dry dessert like grasslands, not humid weather.

I also agree about the arboreals. I keep Chondros and Emeralds, and I feel that too many people over do the humidity, like using water as a substrate. It creates a bacterial breeding ground and in my opinion is not healthy.

A ball python with an RI, I couldn't even begin to tell you, but a healthy one in normal circumstances I believe 40% is far adequate. Maybe misting a little more near their shedding cycle to keep it a little higher around there.

Just my 2 cents,

Mike C

I agree as well! 40% is fine for a healthy ball.... but this one wasn't, wheezing is not a good sign....

I thought she said "whistling", not wheezing. I could be wrong. A slight whistle is not necessarily indicative of an RI. A slight , ocassional whistle could be caused by anything from a little bit of shed skin left over in a nare, or even some substrate stuck in there. Your poiont is well taken though....its very hard to find a good herp vet in most places. I've struck up a pretty good relationship with a very nice lady here locally who claims to be an exotics vet. I've taken some animals in for her to examine, sex, and snap a few radiographs. Whenever I have an issue (a hatchling a few years back that had a malformed eye, and a snake that apparently injuered itself some how), I usually go in, and tell her about the research I've done into the issue (I have a B.S. and M.S. in biology with an organismic/ecology track so we can "talk shop". She tells me what she thinks, we come to an agreement if we can, and then treat accordingly. Interestingly, in both cases we decided that no treatment was indicated, and both snakes are doing fine. The fact is though, I kind of feel like I'm provideing her with a second internship. I just want to keep the lines open in case I ever need meds or anything. It would be nice to have an quality, experienced exotics vet nearby. The sadest thing of all is that I live within 10 miles of the Virginia/Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. From what I can tell, they do not have any professors all that interested in herp medicine. If I only had a cow......

in Norther VA, awesome herp vet...may be the best in the Nation I am told by many otehr vets.

http://www.seavs.com/
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Mike and David at 3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com

Yeah...I'm aware of his reputation. I don't see me making a 4 hour car ride for a vet though. Fortunately, I'm pretty squared away with my husbandry and don't routinely have a need for vet services.

I agree we rarely if ever use them and I was lucky to find one for more general needs who actually worked for him about 45 minutes from me. But were it severe and needing such expertise I'd make any haul necessary...one they are breeders and worth a lot of money, two they are each individuals with personalities, and like family pets to us as well so like any other family member I'd go to some pretty good lengths to get them well. I realize that's not the norm for many breeders as they are just business assets, but we didn't get into this to be millionaires we got into because we love snakes and enjoyed the rush of breeding them...so silly as it may seem every single one has it's own name...our keepers anyway. The kids insisted on it how could I say no.
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Mike and David at 3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com

>>The vet I took my ball to for a check up advised me to keep the enclosure at 40% humidity...this seems rather low to me. I didn't voice my opinion because I do not have the background to do so.

But you can always ask for clarification. There might be a good reason. In *some* cases, decreasing humidity can be better than increasing it - for treatment.

> I would like some input from you guys who are experienced. Since this is the same vet that said my ball doesn't show signs of RI when I could her a faint whistling sound from her mouth

This, by itself, may not indicate RI. I have BPs that whistle sometimes when going into shed. I also have had some that like to dunk their heads in water and produce bubbles. This is not RI either. Are you sure it has RI?

The only treatment I have successfully used to treat RI is heat - increased heat 24X7. I have never had to administer meds to treat RI. Disclaimer: I have never had to treat an animal with severe RI.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

You can go to the following site and observe past weather conditions for specific points around the world.

It shows the year/month breakdown on temps., rainfall, humidity, ect..

You can return to the homepage to select a different locale.

http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/Ghana/GH.html

Alan

I like the site. Is there a reason for it only showing Jan. and Feb.?

Quig

Thats for 2006, March has just arrived

You can select previous years.

Its a little confusing, I had to tweak around to get the hang of it.

Alan

I checked the average humidity in Ghana at the site I listed earlier.

While the capital city Accra seems to have humidy levels in the 70 & 80 % range, this city is located on the ocean.

If you check several locations inland, the humidity seems to be much lower 35 & 50 % range???

Alan

The vet could not find any symptoms of RI but had no explanation for the high pitched whistling...it wasn't weezing and there was no bubbly mucous etc. She just prescribbed the baytril as a precaution. Since it seems she was corect in advising on 40% humidity I am glad I kept my mouth shut because the expert seemed to be correct on that as well based on what yu guys have told me. Since jmartin said he has heard that in his balls as well and there was no RI then a feel better about mine. Thanks.

You should just check out the humidity levels of ghana in the early mornings, the levels are in the 80-90% and then go up into the 30-40-50% during the day, no rain sometimes but a very high dew rate at night because of the heat and many underground water sources...I keep my snakes very humid,. NOT wet, there is a difference, they are not blood pythons and I havent had a sick snake is 4 years, not one respiratory problem, and breeding and feeding is remarkable. Hope this helps

Mike Brooks
TNS Reptiles
Long Island, NY
631-732-4233

Pastel X Calico, great pairing there.

I'm sure a Pastel Calico would make a nice combo.

Be sure to let us know what you get from those two.

BB
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"Have you hugged your drummer today?" --- Me

from last year, she didnt go last year.....maybe this year