Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got my new snake last week and everything seems to be going good, my temps are good, he's eating, etc. The only thing I am having a problem with is the humidity is too high at about 80%. I was expecting the problem of being too low, but not too high. How do I decrease the humidity without loosing too much heat? I have a small water dish and I am using coconut husk as the bedding.

Coconut husk, as in it's a big dry chunk of dirt that you get wet and it expands? Could be you're using too much water when you make the stuff, that's extremely easy to do. Try switching to paper towels (I know, not very pretty) to see what your humidity would be without any sort of special bedding. Could be where you are, the ambient humidity is at 50 or 60, which is ideal. If that turns out to be the case, then you probably want to go with a bedding that won't be as moist from the get-go, like aspen, or just stick with paper towels.

Good luck!

~jenny
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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.0.1 california kingsnake (Tetris)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

No you don't mix it with water, it's just coconut bark, just like aspen chips, etc.

Any other suggestions?

How do you measure the humidity? A digital readout or a gauge? If it's a gauge, it could be that the gauge is wrong, and your humidity isn't really that high.
What part of the country are you in? I know the southeast can get pretty muggy sometimes (although this time of year doesn't seem likely). How big of a tank are you using, and what are you using as a water bowl? Are you even using a tank, and what are you using to cover the top if you are? If you aren't using a tank, what are you using, and does it have a lot of ventilation?
Hmmm... does the bedding seem real wet? does it actually feel really humid in there? When it's that humid the glass tends to fog up near the hide or other places where cage furniture gets close to the glass.
Again, try just using paper towel to see what things are like without any bedding at all, and from there just experiment with different setups. If your water dish is right below what you use to measure humidity, that could also give you a bit of an inaccurate reading.

There's a lot of things you can try, with a small collection it's mostly just tinkering around until you get it right. Oh, are you relying mostly on a heatpad for warmth or are you also using a heat lamp? A heat lamp can help dry things out.

~jenny
-----
1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.0.1 california kingsnake (Tetris)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire