Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I normally keep my baby ball at 70-75% humidity as per the recommendations of the pet store and a few sites/forum browsings, but I've also read a few that contradict the high humidity suggestion and they seem to make sense. Other than for shedding why is such a high humidity recommended for a creature that lives in the arid desert? In other words, what I'm asking is what humidity should I keep her cage at? I'm new to this and have only had her a few months so i appreciate more than one point of view/factual information.

Also my substrate is fir bark

To the best of my knowledge, most ball pythons come from the region of Ghana or Togo, Africa. I believe Ghana is almost tropical in climate. From the research I quickly did, Ghana receives approx. 40-80 inches of rain fall annually. And in Togo part of the region is tropical. I would assume this is where the humidity comes from.
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www.NEWReptiles.com

Sorry I should have done some more research taking what a some pages said for granted. The area balls are from can be anywhere from tropical to grassy plains depending on where in the country their from. These aren't the specific sites I found it on, but these do claim a more mild humidity level. I appreciate you looking up the humidity level, it's nice to know someone else cares about their snakes as much as me instead of answering back with sarcastic responses.

http://www.pnhs.net/Resources/Ballpythons.html
http://www.newenglandreptile.com/CareBall.html

That's a new one...

Whats so new about a dry desert???
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www.NEWReptiles.com

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truthfully i keep my brbs in a humidity of 70-80% I dont see why Balls would need that much humidity all the time. It would be good when shedding but I keep my balls in a humidity of 50-60% and they all shed fine. I would think that BP's would be more suseptable(sp) to infecections with to much humidity but I could be wrong.
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We keep all our balls at 50-60% and they all shed great too. Also, we've noticed, with proper humidity, their feeding response improves.
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www.NEWReptiles.com

I kept high humity with my first ball and ended up at the vet with a bacterial infection, which resembled scale rot. Since then I pay no attention to humidity levels. When the skin color dulls and the eyes turn blue, remove all hide boxes except a humity box, so that they use the humidity box as their hide. Since, I have had perfect sheds and my snakes appear healthy as ever.
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There is an old old article in reptile and amphibian magazine (which died when it was sold to TFH) that documented the prefered humidity levels of ball pythons in the wild...... They spend a lot of time underground, often in termite mounds, where the humidity is usually around 95% and higher...... This is not unusual for animals in dry grassland type areas. For people who have experienced resp infections, don't forget about air exchange....... Most resp infections that I know about have more to do with poor air circulation then with too high of a humidity level...........

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