Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are they really needed with dumerils boas? I ended up taking them out and just making the substrate really deep (cypress mulch). It seems that she likes it better. Now she can burrow thru the substrate and just keep the top of her head exposed. She eats fine without the hides but I am so used to BP's and having to use multiple hides so I wasn't sure if taking out the hides would cause a problem down the road.

If the hide box stays at a realtivey low humidity, less than 25% its probably ok. I used to use hides with smaller dumerils, but its unneccesary. They live in a region of Madagascar that has a lot of scrubland and plateau outcropings, for hide areas. But recieves little annual rainfall, less than 15 inches for two months the entire year. If the area where you have the cage is low traffic, I'm sure he feels secure. All I do for humidity is an occasional soak(which I'm sure they hate) and a couple times a year provide a little, damp unmilled spagnum in a pile- they do seem to appreaciate the moss. But it has to dry out in a few days time. Being from a very arid region, they are most likley prone to humidity related problems if kept wet for extended periods.
Later-
Matt Schubarth
Pet Nebula
2100 Stephens #116
Missoula, Montana 59801
406 541 9929

I had always thought that dums needed about 60% humidity.
I never knew that having very low humidity could be detrimental.
Crap. I have been keeping the humidity up in the enclosure. The thing I liked about the cypress mulch is it retains the humidity and that was one of the reasons I ended up using a thick layer of it.

Sorry. That should have been "I never knew high humidity would be detrimental".