Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have looked at a hundreds of photos (thousands?) showing ball pythons in their cages, and most of them look bone dry. I know what my cages look like when their substrate (either aspen or orchid bark) is damp enough to bring the cage to 60%.

I've been thinking of using spagnum or peat in a hide box for a humid site that won't mold, and keeping the bark or aspen dry, since it is very susceptible to mold (aspen especially).

Your thoughts?

My cages stay about 68% all the time..well it goes down when i open them but i use foile to cover the tops of mine it seems to help alot and also helps keep heat in as well..
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Greg

The humidity in our house generally runs about 55-60% and 60-65% in our cages - without any work. During Santa Ana winds our humidity drops down into single digit numbers and I soak the cages to keep the snakes happy but other than that and a spritz during shed time - my cages maintain 60%. I guess it would be dependant on where you live as to how much extra work you have to put into keeping you humidity up.

If you are having a hard time maintaining a good humidity you can try cypress or reptibark (orchid fir) both of them are mold resistant and good with humidity. As a side note - I ran my maternal incubation tub last season at 100% humidity for 2 weeks and saw no mold on the aspen.

In my experience I've never had a snake use a humid hide - but I know people swear by them.

Hope this helps.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

11.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

i keep mine at 60 percent,sometimes higher,usally the room is set at 60 and with bedding it rases there humidity,so yea most of the year ,,its like a green house in there.if you don't keep it alittle on the humid side you will have shedding problems all the time,but watch your lower cages as they may mold,if so run a fan eather facing up or one blowing across the room,so the air is cirulating around ,its allways cooler on the bottom cages and when kept that humid it will mold,so you may want to use a fan anyway,,,,,hope this helps out a bit
Greg Van Zweden
http://www.geocities.com/vanzwedensreptiles/

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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters

We keep them at about 65% in the summer and down around 35-40% in the winter. We found eth cage carpets to have less mold and other nasty growth. Provide less ventilation to trap in some moisture, use some form of large digitally controlled humidifier in the snake room.

David @3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com

I use a 15 gallon humidifier and it keeps the room at 65 degree humidity. I still need to spray the cages in to ensure good sheds.

Spraying your cages once a week is a good way to go. Bedding other than paper is way to messy.

Good luck

Tony Hurt
Snake Evolutions

Paper and a hide box...they'll go under the paper and it seems a bit more humid under there. During the winter, I'm lucky to have anyone at 40% humidity, but I only have a couple animals that need to be soaked. Bloods and Apadoras, occasionally the balls.
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1.1 Blackheaded pythons
1.1 Woma (Juvie female)
2.1 Aussie Olives
1.1 Timors
1.0 Angolan Juvie
1.1 Savu
1.1 Juvie Bloods
1.1 Juvie Balls
1.1 IJ Carpets
1.1 Coastal Carpets
1.2 Macklotts
1.1 Papuan Olives
1.0 Jungle Carpet
2.2 Scrubs (on breeding loan)
0.1 Jungle/Diamond cross
0.1 child, CB
0.1 wife, WC

tony
are you saying you keep all your snakes on newspaper?
if so i better renew my star telegram subscription.
haha

phoenix reptiles

Sometimes, I have a very hard time keeping the cage at 60%. The cage seems to want to settle around 35 to 45 percent. I mist once or twice a day trying to increase the humidity. Sometimes, I'm successful. Sometimes, I'm less successful.

My ball python never used a humid hide when I tried to make one for her. However, I've found that I can put moss around her regular hides and spray the moss often. I suspect that keeping the moss damp increases the humidity where she's spending most of her time.

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

We have a large facility that has a lot of air exchange so its really difficult for us to keep the humidity high enough, especially in the winter when it is so dry. We keep all of our balls in Freedom Breeders, which won't hold much humidity. The combination of these factors has caused us a lot of humidity problems with our snakes. Over the past few years, we've used cypress mulch as our bedding. It works great when its fresh, but it's difficult to keep clean unless you replace it pretty often. Its difficult to get all the waste out unless you change the bedding in the entire box. We also continued to have shedding problems. We have set up 4 large humidifiers in the main adult room, but it still isn't enough to make a difference. Over the past few weeks, we changed from cypress to newspaper, and just included a rubbermaid revelations 6.5qt hide box with cypress mulch inside. We keep the lid of the hide off because some of the balls would squeeze between the lid of the hide and the rack itself, and basically get jammed in their so tight that I couldn't slide the box open. We've found that if we spray the cypress in the hide once or twice a week, nearly every snake has a perfect shed. The mulch keeps the humidity in the cage high, but the paper remains dry. It makes for much more sanitary conditions in the cage. We just change the paper when they defecate, and change the mulch as needed. It works great.

Garrick DeMeyer
www.crestedGecko.com
Royal Constrictor Designs
CrestedGecko.com/ Royal Constrictor Designs

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