I have two cape york spotted pythons; an Adult female and a 6 month old male. When the male is sufficiantly large enough so that the female won't accidentally squash him I am going to move them both into a 60 gallon tank. The latest issue of Reptiles magazine (the Living Vivarium section) had a article about making natural waterfalls, and previous issues talked about adding ferns and trees to the vivarium. I thought that would be a cool thing to do to the 60 gallon. My question is will the humidity level of a tropical forest vivarium be too high for two spotted pythons? I live in the Mojave Desert so the natural humidity of my area is 0%! (Don't try to raise chameleons here!) Also would spotteds have any problem with ferns or ficus/dwarf fig trees? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Help with humidity levels?
Replies (3)
i dont know of what humidity levels you need for spotteds. But 1 i dont think you should house them together. And 2 with a screen top and i dont think the humidity would stay in that much.
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Spotteds actually do best in pairs and trios. Their humidity level is about 50-60%.
I have lived in Denver for a short period of time so I have some experience with maintaining humidity in somewhat dry conditions (it's not easy).
When you say tank I assume you mean a modified aquarium or a sliding screen top cage. This will actually help. Humidity tends to settle down low and the solid walls and bottom of an aquarium will not allow the humidity to escape.
However, if you use a radiant heat source of some type you'll create a convection current and pull humidity out via the subsequent updraft.
An undertank heat source will minimize this.
How the snake and plant species will do in this type of setup is hard to answer, especially since I have never lived in the desert nor tried it myself.
This is one of those situations where trial and error will work best, I'm afraid.
The only comment I might make involved my best guess as to the natural history of this species. I believe they live in fairly dry areas but spend a lot of time occupying communal burrows and termite mounds where the humidity is much higher.
If so I think slightly humid hides and a relatively dry cage is a better choice.
But that's speculation on my part. I don't know a lot about these pythons.
