Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i just got my ball python a week ago, im having problems keeping my humidity up when the infrared lamp(125watt from home depot) is on, humidity is 45-50 when its on. temps in tank: left/lamp side 90-95 degrees, right side 80-85 degrees

when its off humidity goes to 60-70%. temps about 75 for the whole tank. maybe not under the rigth side hide, the UTH is under it

i have a 30"x12"x12" tank with a UTH that covers 1/3 of the tanks right side, this is my "cooler" side. there are 2 hides, rigth has the UTH under it, left hide you can see in the pics has the lamp over it, but i only keep the lamp on during the day. water bowl is in the middle

with the lamp on the temp is 90-95 degrees with the UTH side being 80-85 degrees

http://www.geocities.com/dchaen516/Monty.html for pics

so what should i do? ditch the lamp? i just want him to have a humid & warm enough environment. Also i have a t-shirt across 1/2 the tank to try to keep humidity higher which can be seen in the pictures

I'm unable to get the link to work. Your setup sounds like mine. I'm using a tank w/ sliding screen top. I have a UTH on the warm side and in order to keep my cool side temps up I have to use the infrared light. To fix humidity, just cover the lid (leave space for the lights) with duct tape. If that doesn't help enough, you can also or instead you can cover with damp towels.

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Adhesive tape is one of the biggest no-no's after hot rocks in the reptile industry.

And lamps suck for nocturnal subterranean animals.
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1.0 Ball Python "Aragorn"
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0.1 California Kingsnake "Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Indigo"
1.0 Snow Corn snake "Chile"

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

Did you mean putting tape where it can be ingested? Does it create toxic fumes? Plz explain. Thanks
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(¯`·.¸¸.·´Kane`·.¸¸.·´¯)

I once had a corn snake pull a lot of his skin off after it got stuck in furnace tape. Apparently some tape sticks to some snake's skin like you wouldn't believe. In the ideal world it might be best not to have any tape anywhere near your snakes (what if it gets stuck trying to get out of the lid?). Maybe there are other risks but that's the one I learned about.

I think it depends on your screen top. My screen is such that the I can't even stick a ball point pin tip in one of the holes - they're that small.
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1.0 Saharan Sand Boa "Frodo"
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0.1 California Kingsnake "Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Indigo"
1.0 Snow Corn snake "Chile"

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

Tape is evil. My first snake on his first day pulled the humidy gage off the wall inside his tank (it was stuck good as far as I thought, he used it to climb on), and it got stuck on him near his vent. You would think I learned a lesson but I didn't, I had another screen top cage I cut a small hole in for the thermostat but I ended up not using it so I cover the hole with tape I thought wasn't really sticky. Well I came home from work to find the tape stuck on the head of one of my ball pythons, ever try soaking a ball pythons head (not easy and this was a snake who was never handled so it was not good).

So please learn from my dumb mistakes don't put it anywhere near the snake, someone else brought up a good point about what if it gets out (which does happen).

Glad things turned out well for you!

At first when I used the duct tape I did put it on the underside of the screen lid - until I say a piece starting to come undone and I could visualize the danger with that. That's when I put it on top of the screen lid and realized how much better that worked out.
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1.0 Ball Python "Aragorn"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa "Gimli"
1.0 Saharan Sand Boa "Frodo"
0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa "Arwen"
0.1 California Kingsnake "Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Indigo"
1.0 Snow Corn snake "Chile"

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

I think they were talking about adhesive heat tape...when it sticks to the glass it conducts a lot of heat and can cause burns if not set up correctly. I however use heat tape and have no problems and floor heat is the best way to control an enclosure. I think the best way is to use a non adhesive heat tape and leave a thin layer of air between tape and cage. this will not conduct as much heat to the glass and cause the heat to raise into the tank better.

www.geocities.com/dchaen516/Monty.html

* Make sure the top is covered, leaving just enough room for a little ventilation.

* Use a substrate that holds water better may also help.

* Placing water bowl partly over one of the UTHs may help as well though it should be cleaned more frequently if you do this.

* If these don't work, ditch the lamp and add a UTH to the hot side... one that's powerful enough to get your temp up to 90. Belly heat is better for snakes anyway.
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(¯`·.¸¸.·´Kane`·.¸¸.·´¯)

If your UTH is only working at 80-85 degrees it is broken. Most UTH's run at 110-120, what kind do you have? also unless your room temp is below 60 degrees a 125 watt bulb is OVERKILL. how are you measuring your temps? with stick on therms from the pet store? if so, then i bet you your temps are actually around 95-100 on bulb side and 105 on the UTH side. Get some polystyrene from home depot and place it on the back and the sides of the cage. Then cover the screen top almost completely. AFter that get a digital therm with probe and place the unit at the cool side (opposite side of UTH) and the probe on the hottest point. Then buy a thermostat w/probe and place the probe where the therm probe is and set the thermostat to 92. Then get a refund for your heat lamp.
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i use a stick on tape one for the lamp side, it does read 95ish after the lamp has been on for awhile

the UTH(zoo-med) is the small size, 6 inch by 9inch on the rigth side. usually reads 80-85 when the lamp is on, and around 75 with it off. tank is 30X12X12, the pad is only taking up 6x9 portion of the tank. 6" side being perpendicular to the 30" and 9" with the 12"
UTH side has the zoo med double gauge wtih temp and humidity

what does polystrene do? how much are thermastats?

what are you using to measure temps?
where are you placing the therm?

also the zoo med heat pads run between 110-120, never had a reading below never above. So you are measuring temps wrong if you are getting 80.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
0.1 Red blood python (Rhianon)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

My image Gallery

one crittezs stick on therm on the lamp side, near the top of the tank

UTH side, zoo-med temp & humidity combo gauges at the top of the tank

cant see them in the pics with the link provided but they are both mounted near the top of the screen in the front corners of the tank
Link

s
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
0.1 Red blood python (Rhianon)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

My image Gallery