Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm getting my first snake, a Ball Python only 5 months old captive bred, tommorrow, and was wondering if I put this bendable vine material in my tank if he will climb it? Or would he never use it? He wouldn't have to be on it all day, say as much as a GTP, but would he even use it? Also, I heard that it's hard to keep humidity in a 40G breeder, how would you recommend keeping it at the recommeneded level?

Your ball more than likely will climb on your vine or whatever else you put in there, mostly it will stay in a hide box that you should have in the cage as well. Any aquarium with a screen top is going to be tough to keep humidity in but with ball pythons the only time you really need higher levels of humidity is when they go into shed. You can either get him a humid hide, such as a hide box with some damp moss in it, or you can just simply get a spray bottle and give him/her a couple sprays once or twice a day for that week when your snake is in shed mode.

Jason

Congrats on your new critter. He will likely use it so I say go for it. Just make sure it's sturdy, etc.

As far as the humidity, you can go with a substrate like Bed-a-Beast with some light misting. It helps with humidity and looks natural. You can cover the screen lid with duct tape (on the top outside of the lid-never on the inside of the tank) leaving openings for lights and a little ventilation. You can also cover the top with damp towels. Or just add a humid hide - if your bp will use it that may be all you need. Any one of those ideas or a combination of them should work. Just have to fiddle around and find what works best.
-----
Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python "Aragorn"
1.0 Bredl's Carpet Python "Strider"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa "Gimli"
1.0 Saharan Sand Boa "Frodo"
0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa "Arwen"
1.0 San Felipe Rosy Boa "Legalos"
0.1 California Kingsnake "Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Indigo"
1.0 Snow Corn snake "Chile"
0.1 Okeetee Corn snake "Amazon"
1.0 Crested Gecko "Willow"
0.0.1 Irian Jaya BlueTongued Skink
0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer "Kira"

Have you decided on a heat source???

A bulb will dry the air out even more.

I dug up some photos of my old 40 gal tanks to illustrate the improvements I made.

First I put some door weather-stripping around the top of the tank.

Then just placed the precut plexi on top.

As you can see I use my old 40’s for rat tanks now. All the snakes are in racks(and doing better).

There are other things you can do to increase the humidity, put the water bowl partially over the heat source; home made Tropic Aire systems, damp towel over part of the top.

I tried them all, this cost me $5 US dollars and I never had a problem again.
One misting kept the humidity at 75-80 percent for a week.

And I disagree with Jason; you do need humidity even when they are not in shed. A minimum of 50 percent regularly and around 80 percent during sheds(however you attain it).
That’s my opinion.
Sorry I’ve been long winded lately, that’s not like me??

TomChambers