Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Since I added a new overhead light to raise my snake's terrarium up to proper temps, my humidity is around 55%. My snake just went into shed, and I would like to bump it up a bit. I thought of buying a new sponge from the store and placing it in my snake's water dish, with half of it sticking up in the air. I figure this will suck up water and evaporate in the air, thus raising the humidity.

Do you think this will work?

Could there be any harm done to the snake due to the sponge or some chemical in the sponge?

That sounds like a big hastle always having to moisten a sponge. I would give your snake a humid hide spot. You can cut a hole in the top of a rubbermaid container, fill it with damp moss or something, and then your snake can enter that hide when it needs more humidity. I don't think the sponge in the water bowl would do a thing. Also, you want to give your snake a choice of if it wants humidity or not, not just one choice, cage-wide. Good luck,
Justin J
Australian Addiction Reptiles (and ball pythons)

Well, the whole point of leaving the sponge in his water bowl is that it would be constantly soaking up water and hopefully it would be evaporating into the air. Also, I have heard of many people raising humidity during sheds, so I'm not sure why you think this would be a bad idea. I am still going to give it a try, so if anyone has any input on whether this could be dangerous for the snake, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Be careful. Most sponges (even cheap ones) come pre-treated with cleaning chemicals. Shop around first.

Chris
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mean people suck

I have had problems when using household sponges in fish tanks at my store they come with chemicals to keep them nice and spongy in the store till you buy them. I have had tanks of fish die when someone not nowing better tried to use them for cleaning. My thought would be if it could kill fish if your snake drank the water it couldnt be good for it. Although I dont know how much humidity you would gain if you still wanted to try you could use either a natural sea sponge or a sponge for hermit crabs both could be found at a pet store.

Jay
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Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
3.20 ball pythons
1.1 dumeril boas
0.0.1 pixie frog
1.1 dogs
0.2 cats
more fish than I can list.

I'm not the originator of this thread, but I appreciate your post. I use a sponge to absorb the water out of my snakes' bowls before pulling the bowls out of the cage for cleaning. The bowls are too big to pull out of the cage without spilling most of the water, so I use a sponge to get the water out (and squeezed into a bucket) and then remove the bowls for cleaning and refilling. (I put the bowl back in the cage empty and pour water from a cup.) I'll have to look at the store for a better sponge. I suspect that any chemicals from the sponge I'm using would be washed off when I clean the bowl, but I don't want to take unnecessary risks.

Thanks,

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

I dont think it is a problem to use them for cleaning bowls or cages, because when you are done you rinse the bowl out and add fresh water. I was concerned with the sponge sitting/soaking in the water the snake would be drinking. Just a tip though if you are concerned with it you could be a algae scrubber sponge that is meant to clean fish tanks from a petstore. I find that they are better for scrubing then a dish sponge and they last alot longer, I even have one in the kitchen sink for the real dishes lol. The only thing is they are not absorbent so they will not soak up water from the dishes.
Jay
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Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
3.20 ball pythons
1.1 dumeril boas
0.0.1 pixie frog
1.1 dogs
0.2 cats
more fish than I can list.