Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in the mojave desert, and so humidity levels are really difficult to maintain. So what is the ideal humidity to shoot for, and if you keep a humid box do you need to maintain humidity in the overall enclosure, or will the snake just move into the humid box if he's feeling a little dry?

For babies and juvies it is imperative that you keep them humid at all times, with a slight drop at night. A relative humidity level of 70-80% is good for them during the day with a drop of 10-20% at night, for a HL=50-60%.

i dont claim to be an expert...ive worked with relatively few blood pythons, but i learned from the best, namely Dave and Tracy Barker...theyve bred many many bloods and they know what theyre doing, so i figure they offer an excellent jumping off point for blood and short tail care. not to mention they live in the texas hill country and im pretty sure its not the most humid area on earth! that said ill move onto some things ive learned in the almost 2 years ive been keeping bloods...

yes bloods come from an area of high humidity...thats in the wild, this isnt the wild. in captivity high humidity means comprimised air flow in most cases. low airflow is very bad for all snakes. this isnt to say they should be kept with very little humidity, quite the opposite. here are a few hints, ive used them in practice and honestly they work well.

for caging, you honestly cant beat rubbermaid storage boxes, for a hatchling the sweaterbox size is great. i ventilate the rubbermaids very well, many many small holes. even a well ventilated rubbermaid holds humidity pretty well, a whole lot better than tanks! i provide base temps of about 75 to 78 degrees on the cooler end, and 85 or so on the warm end with a 92 to 95 degree basking area...all in a rubbermaid! now heres the tricky part, we all constantly hear that keeping bloods to dry can cause RI and scale dimpling....BAH! youre more likely to have those kind of issues with too much humidity! they are more common in too much humidity. ill quote dave and tracy, "err on the side of dry.", and its true, i keep my general cage humidity at 50 to 60%, and i offer a rubbermaid box filled with very damn long fiber sphagnum moss, tho a damp towel, bed a beast, or any of the many many things ive seen and heard would work. this gives them more of a choice, they can choose to be extrememely humid or pretty dry. i always have a large bowl of water available at all times. i cant say my way is the best or only way, but, my blood is nearing 2 years old, shes just shy of 4 feet, eats like a scrub, even in shed. this is also how ive kept her since i got her, which was as a TINY hatchling that hadnt eatten ever. good luck, keep us posted, enjoy the snake, bloods are truely amazing animals to work with!

J
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Jaymz
"got a bowlin ball in my stomache, got a desert in my mouth. figures that my courage would choose to sell out now..."

I went to the pet store and bought the cheapest air pump they had, about $4.50, and I bought some hose, about a buck, and with tax it all came to about $6. Then I got an old butter tub, ran the hose through the lid, filled it with water, and kept punching holes in the lid until the humidity level was where I wanted it. Now there's a constant supply of fresh, moist air in the sweater box. Relative umidity went from 45 to 75, and Monty seems happy. (I'm sure I caught him smiling)