Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone. First time user of the forum. I have a columbian rainbow boa, and in the winter it's hard to keep the humidity up (60-80% RH is the range I use, with 65-75% ideal). I think I need to add a humidifying device to the water bowls I already have. Before I get one I'd like to know about people's experiences with misters and foggers. Specifically, has anyone used Zoo Med's Habba-Mist? I use newspaper for a substrate, so I'm a little concerned about that getting soaked by a mister if the droplets are too big. My CRB spends almost all of his time on the floor of the cage, would a fogger produce too high of a local humidity where he's breathing that could lead to infection? Any comments, feedback, or recommendations are appreciated, especially in relation to specific products.

Thanks!

I do recommend a fogger over a mister for your particular needs. You'll see greater increases in humidity with less total water being pumped in your cage.

However, I've heard these pet trade foggers are not very good and don't last very long. Also, they're not much cheaper than the ultrasonic humidifiers available at Walgreens, etc.

I recommend purchasing an ultrasonic humifier and then running PVC pipe or aqarium tubing from the outlet port and into your cage. You can control these with a standard light timer.

The main issue with these is that you really need to use distilled or RO/DI water with these ultrasonics. Even good quality tap water will ruin them.

If this will be a problem you can always build a high-humidity hide box for your snake, provided he will use it. You can get more info on this on the Rainbow Boa forum.

The RH in my snake room drops to 20%. Despite this, most of my cages run in the 50% range naturally, and I'm yet to find an economical alternative to spraying as needed. I did try the "Habba-Mist" single cage unit, and continue to use it for a 4 X 2 X 4 enclosure for my PTS. It does not spray a mist- it sprays relatively large spluttering droplets. It, along with units like it, lack the pressure to aerosolize water. Given its price tag, you may as well double the money and get an actual misting system. It works fine in my PTS enclosure only because it is four feet high with multiple perches to help naturally disperse the water. Even given that I have to rotate the location of the nozzle every other day to prevent excess water and the accompanying mold/mildew. For applications like this it works, but it would be impractical for a more terrestrial set-up because it would soak the floor. I don't use ultrasonic foggers (though they work very well) due to the hassle of keeping that much deionized water available and fresh. I have heard good reports of piping in with PVC as mentioned above, and may try that for next winter if the collection continues to expand.

Thanks for your feedback on my problem (I just got around to reading these replies). I think I will look into a fogger option, as it sounds like mist would soak my rather short enclosure (2 ft tall). For the time being, I do have a damp hidebox setup, so my CRB should be safe and comfortable even when I can't spray. Thanks again.