Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am a newbie to keeping ball pythons. I purchased a Vision reptile cage (model #332) for my ball python and I am having problems keeping the humidity up. I blocked off most of the vents, I have a huge 14" water dish in the cage, and I still have to mist the cage about 4 times a day in order to keep the humidity up near 60%. I end up misting about 14-16 ounces of water into the cage each day and still the humidity is low and the substrate stays dry. If I only mist the cage once a day the humidity drops to 28-30%. I live in northwestern michigan where winter causes indoor humidities to drop. My question is what can I do to get the humidity up so I don't have to keep spraying down the cage every couple of hours? I was thinking about buying a "Habba Mist" system. Is this a good idea or a waste of money? Will this "Habba Mist" scare the snake? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

I have the same problem in Northern, IL. I have to mist at least twice a day very thouroughly. Try putting the largest water bowl you can find as close to the heated side as possible. This will help a little. Also, maybe try a different substrate made for more tropical reptiles. But, when it comes down to it, when the humidity in your house is 20%, it makes it tough. Have you tried using a room humidifier, you can usually pick one up for around $20-30. Don't worry about it though, low humidity wont really hurt BPs, they will have more problems shedding and their eye caps are especially prone to dehydrating, but as soon as the humidity comes up again, they will be fine. Keep misting away.

Hey, I live in NH and the winter here does the same to the humidity in my house. I heard the same thing about low humidity not really being a problem, and that the snake will be fine once humidity is raised back to 60 or so. rwoody may have had better luck than I did, but my ball got dehydrated and had a horrible shed, most of which I had to take of myself after giving him a long warm bath. Since then I have kept the humidity anywhere from 50 to 60, and now 80% because my snake is about to shed again. He looks great, not to mention hes been feeding 100000% better than he was when the humidity was kept too low. I can only tell you from experience w/ one bp, but maintaining the humidity atleast 50% at all times has been the best thing for my snake in terms of eating, shedding, growing, and just looking alot better. Im not sure what your vision cage looks like, but to keep humidity up i just mist once or twice a day, and cover most of the screen top (on my cage) w/ a damp towel. Not sure if that applies to your cage, but good luck and keep that humidity up.

I have a carpeted 75 gallon aquarium with a medium water dish. To boost the humidity, i fill a coffee mug with water and have a large sponge that sitcks several inches out the top, allowing faster evaporation. Between the water dish and coffee mug, it keep the tank between 60-70% humidity. My apartment is around 30% using the same humidity gauge.