Reptile & Amphibian Forums

THANKS I COULD HAVE REALLY USED THE HELP!EVERY1 STARTED OFF AT THE BEGINNING!DID'NT YOU HAVE HELP!THANKS Charles![hypoboa]

You just posted that. Give people a chance to answer it. Not everyone visits the forum at the same time. Sometimes I'm not here for days at a time.

I live in a very dry climate and I mist my boas A LOT. So far, it has worked well and I have good sheds. Perhaps the RI is from something else......like temps too cool or contracted from another animal??? An RI can fester undetected for a long time before it becomes obvious. As long as you are using tanks, I would say continue misting and make sure their overall temps are warm enough. You might also consider a humidifier for their room.

Give em more than a couple hours man... Now if you went a week without a reply, then maybe I could understand...

One thing I always used when I needed higher humidity though was to use airstones in the water bowl... Plus it helps keep the water cleaner... And my water dragons and boa loved the added movement...

Sorry guys guess I am just a little impatient!I bought a humidifier an stopped misting but the humidifier only kept it at 40% an thats not enough!Ok so what you are saying Linda is the baby het could have had it when I got him!I thought I caused it by misting him sice he was a baby!Back to misting tomorrow!An thank you both for taking the time to help!Wasnt trying to be an ass but I have needed help in the past,not on this forum an I got no help an had to learn ther hard way!I do keep it between 90 an 95 degrees with the heating pad on one side an heat lamp on the other!Thanks Charles!

Do you have your little snake in a open top fish tank?? if so try to cover most (98%) of the tank with plexiglass or plastic wrap. This will help keep the humidity in. One more tip, the basking spot should be 90-95 not the whole cage. I use two thermomiter/ humidity gauges for my cages one on each side of the cage. One side 90f and the other 80f. ---Eric---

I'm just wondering why you think you need to provide so much humidity? I've never heard of a boa getting sick from not enough humidity. A good size water bowl is plenty. I only mist sometimes during a shed cycle or breeding season, thats it. If you have a new baby that is sick, it either came in that way or happened from the stress of shipping, not lack of humidity. And heating a young boa over 90 degrees is too much and will cause it to regurgitate. Good luck.
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Mark Kennedy Reptiles

for many of us yesterday was a holiday and we weren't around to check the boards. Patience, one day isn't that long.

Now, on to the humidity problem. If you're using a glass tank with a screen top, it will tend to get drier, especially since you're using a heat lamp (which dries the air out). It isn't a major issue if the humidity drops to 40% in the winter time. It isn't ideal but is shouldn't cause any health problems other than possible difficulty shedding. Typically my cages also hover around 40% in the winter and I simply mist them around their sheds to boost humidity up to 60% or so for a few hours. If you were actually misting every couple of hours and making the tank constantly moist, it could have lowered the snake's body temperature - possibly causing the RI. Also, I have found that snakes kept a bit drier have an easier time overcoming RI's, so I don't mist sick animals at all, but that's just my experience. Your snake should also have a temperature gradient - having a heat pad on one end and a lamp on the other doesn't allow the snake to choose its temperature zone as BOTH ends are warm ends. Ambient cage temps should be around 80F with only a basking site reaching 92-95F. Also, if there are any drafts in the room, a screen top will allow those to get to your snake, meaning it could be colder than what your thermometers are reading. Minimize drafts around the cage (possibly cover a portion of the screen with newspaper, etc.), cut back on - or eliminate - the direct misting and keep the ambient cage temps boosted to around 85F while the snake is sick but still provide the warmer basking zone of 92-95F...on one end. Of course, seeing a good reptile vet is also a must.

Best of luck with your snake.
Raven

where would you get airstones? i think that would be an awesome idea as sometimes my tanks just wont hold humidity

I can never get a response from anyone either.Lee Barrie is pretty cool as for the rest they would rather spend there time flaming Cagle..hehehehhe,Just put America Jungle in your header for instant replies....Paul.

Just scroll down this page and you will see many people taking their time to help others with questions.

np.

Woah... relax man. You only made your original post YESTERDAY! This isn't an incredibly high volume board. As you can see there have only been a handful of new posts since the time you made yours.

Also, one thing I have noticed about this board is that the picture posts always seem to get way more responses than question oriented posts. Not sure why that is, but just an observance.

In the future, try putting something like *URGENT* in the title of your post (if it is in fact urgent). That will help you to get better responses at a faster rate. Something generic like "Boa Humidity Problem" doesn't usually attract a lot of attention because most people think it is something that can be easily searched for.

Good luck, and I apologize for not having anything more useful to say to help your problem.
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David - Houston, TX
Young Red Tail Boa
Purchased 11/16/03
www.geocities.com/davidag02

I found 2948 matches on ' humidity ' in the Kingsnake search.
forums.kingsnake.com/search/index.php

To help my boas shed I just mist them two times a day when I see them going into shed. I do this everyday until they shed.
I also keep my boas water dish on the hot side of the cage and this will help with the humidity too. Your temps are a little high.
You should not have your heat light on the opposite side of your heat mat. They should be on the same side.
My cages are 76 to 85 on the cool side and 92 to 95 right over the heat mat on the hot side. The air temp on the hot side is 88 to 92. All I use are Kane heat mats for my cages. There is no overhead heating anymore in my cages.

Also, just like Linda said, I only come here every two or three days so give everyone some time to answer your posts.

Take care,
Tom
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McCarthyBoas.com