Creating an additional update. I have the temp at a good spot, but the humidity is still giving me trouble. I am looking into a few things, first I plan on getting some HVAC tape to cover most of the mesh top. I’ve heard that works fairly well when paired with an XL water dish. I currently have an Exo Terra XL dish. Aside from that, the only thing I could think of other than water beneath the soil (which I am already doing) is to boost the humidity of the entire room. Does anyone have experience with an automatic humidifier. I figured I would buy one from Govee and set it to consistently keep the humidity around 50% and that way maybe the tanks will be closer to 80% with the HVAC tape. Thoughts on this?
This is her enclosure right now, it is 36x18x18 as she is hardly a foot long yet.
80% is way too high, at that point you’re impacting the air quality and risking respiratory issues. Going to link to this post by @ballornothing for ideal humidity:
Really? Interesting. For the longest time I thought 60% was the go to which is where my other two are at in glass tanks. When I started asking around about help for this rescue I was treated like an idiot I swear, people were telling me that 60% is the bare minimum for them. I think I’ll take my chances and listen to you though considering you’re a 5 star breeder lol.
In that case, maybe I’ll ditch the HVAC tape idea and just boost the whole room to 50% considering nothing except ball pythons and crested geckos are in there. The geckos are already sitting at around 70% so the boost won’t affect them.
Honestly there is a lot of mixed advice out there, and different things work for different people in different climates. While I appreciate your faith in me, I don’t actually work with Ball Pythons. Don, who I quoted, is quite knowledgeable on many species, and someone whose information I trust. As his post mentions, 60% is still technically fine, just the higher end of recommended. I’m guessing you probably meant to say 60% instead of the 80% that’s in the original post?
I used to believe that 60-80% was the norm for BPs too. But someone pointed it out to me that 50-60% is actually a more appropriate range so I read up on it and its impact on air quality, which can affect a BP’s respiratory system.
But it makes sense. In the wild BPs live in a pretty arid environment and really only experience moderate humidity where they spend their days sleeping in termite mounds or in other terrestrial places, to come out at night when the temps are much fairer for them.
I think it may have to do with the fact that there are quite a bit of inexperienced people or people who just don’t understand the Ball Python’s natural environment. I’ve known more than a few people who believed Ball Pythons were a tropical species, when infact they are far from that.
Another thing that people seem to not know as much is that BPs are semi-arboreal. Meaning they don’t mind climbing to considerable heights and are fully capable to, being seen hanging out in trees and such on top of thicker low hanging branches.
Technically ball pythons do live in more tropical regions of Africa, but the term tropical is way too general for my liking. Another tropical species would be a rainbow boa who’s natural environment is constantly rainy and reaches 90% humidity with ease at night. It’s scary that people compare Africa to the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon rainforest just because of the term tropical. The closest ball pythons get to this are the Ugandan jungles.
Yes I did indeed fat finger my post, I meant 60%. I figure just tossing an automatic humidifier from Govee and just setting the room to 50% should be solid. As stated before, she has an XL water dish and as stated in a previous post has an automatic mister going three times a week (for clarification, it sprays at 12:00pm for 20 seconds on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). This should keep it closer to around 50-55 than the 35 it’s at right now.
I just add water to the substrate to add humidity. I use coco husk substrate, and add sphagnum moss to it in the winter when it’s really dry to help it retain additional moisture. Sometimes I have to add water a few times a week, but it works well for me in a dry climate, and two of the species I keep actually need somewhat higher humidity than ball pythons.
I’ve never tried a room humidifier. I presume it would help, I just haven’t found it to be necessary.
Be very careful with any sort of tape around snakes. I would recommend something else (plastic or metal?) to cover the screen and if you must use tape only outside the tub. My only tape vs snake experience was many years ago with duct tape and a corn snake but it stuck to the scales unbelievable well and the snake severely injured itself trying to get loose. Maybe ball python scales are different but I would risk it.
If your background room temperature is enough cooler than the tank temperature to cause condensation that could also pump a lot of humidity out of the tank air. I’d recommend insulation outside the ends and back to cut down on cold glass surface area.
Ya duct tape is very strong and would most definitely hurt a reptile. HVAC tape on the other hand is made from an aluminum foil and has a very weak adhesive that can easily be removed from anything. It is also on the exterior of the enclosure and is non-toxic, heat resistant, and moisture resistant. I did indeed consider the tape I used, I would hate for my snake to get stuck to it at all.
