Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I'm hoping to get a corn this week & have the cage all set up. However, I live in Utah & it's very dry here. How do you all keep up the humidity in your cages?
I'm using a carefresh type litter for substrate. 10 gal, UTH, lamp w/ 40 watt bulb, temps 88-90 on the ground on the warm side, about 81 under the light on top of a basking tree. Three hides, one of which I can make humid. Small water bowl.
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1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

you really dont need that much humidity in a corn snakes cage. I have had corn snakes since i was like 8 and have never had a problem with humidity. You could probably just spray down one or two of the hide boxes weekly. That should do fine.

Thanks. I was thinking of covering 1/2 the screen cover w/ plastic wrap. I read somewhere that they need around 40% humidity. Is that true?
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1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

I tend to keep my snakes at 50-60% humidity because my house is very dry and they've had problems at humidity much lower than that.

Also, Carefresh dries out the cage much more than other substrates, so you may want to use a different substrate. If you already have dry air, you don't want to increase your humidity problems by using something that is going to absorb a ton of moisture.

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alstiver@hotmail.com

Current snakes:
1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla Coil)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
To be added in February:
0.1 '98 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake
1.0 '00 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake

Thank you. I debated back & forth between aspen & carefresh. I'm avoiding cypress bark due to my own allergies, which is also one reason I leaned toward the paper substrate (it's actually a carefresh-type made by Kaytee). Considering I have a bag of this stuff, any advice on how to keep it humid while using that? How do you keep humidity up in your tank & what substrate do you use?
Thanks again!
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1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

When I used Carefresh I ended up misting the entire tank everyday to keep the humidity up.

I only use paper towels now. It may not be very pretty, but it works for me.

When they go into shed cycles I lightly mist their cages about every other night until they shed. I also have a moist hide box in each of their cages at all times due to the low humidity of my house.

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alstiver@hotmail.com

Current snakes:
1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla Coil)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
To be added in February:
0.1 '98 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake
1.0 '00 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake

the best substrate that i have used to keep the humidity up is echo earth. It is the hard stuff that you have to soak in water before you put it in the cage. I misted that once a week or two and it kept the humidity up at moderate levels. It holds moisture very well. Good luck.

the first one is to ditch the heat lamp. Two reasons for that: lights tend to dry out the air, and your temps are too high. The hot side should only be about 82-84 and the cool side about 78 or so. Where are you measuring temps? Your accurate thermometer should be on the bottom of the tank. Using TWO heat producers in such a small tank will get you very high temps!

The second one is to take back the carefresh to the store. It is really very drying, plus it smells funny when it gets wet from misting. See if you can trade it in on some other kind of substrate that was recommended here. I really like the ease of paper towels, however a lot of others love aspen. Obviously do not use cedar or pine.
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sue

Thank you all. I had considered using EcoEarth & even keep it around as I use if for my frogs, but none of the sites or posts I read suggested it as a substrate, so I wasn't sure. I think I'll try the aspen bedding, or the EcoEarth. I'll check my temps again, as well.
I ordered my snake today from South Mountain Reptiles. She/he is a Reverse Okeetee & will be here on Wed.
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1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena