Oh that’s awesome! I got a herpstat recently and I’m still learning it. How do you calculate the percentage you can safely run it at?
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Interesting. I am currently just using an Inkbird thermostat that was recommended by Green Room Pythons on YouTube, just something to get me started. I would love to upgrade to a nice thermostat once I have her in her permanent PVC enclosure! Anyone have any recommendations? I don’t plan on having many snakes, maybe one more ball python morph and a boa, but that’s it, so I don’t need any super expensive ones that can run tons of snakes lol.
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Just experimentally. You need at least high enough that it can keep it at temperature stable while everything’s set up properly in the coldest your room could go. Plus probably a little wiggle room.
And once you have the power dialed back, if you want to see how high it will get when failing, take the probe and put it somewhere cool. Definitely don’t do this with any animals in enclosures the thermostat is controlling! And also be present in the room and monitoring it the whole time. Don’t kill your animals and don’t burn your house down! Put a thermometer that can record max temperature on your hot spot in your enclosure and let it rip. It’s still going to get “too hot” but you should be avoiding melting your enclosure and hopefully leave the cool end low enough for your animals to survive for a while to give you time to find and fix the issue in a real accident. Obviously if the thermometer shows the temperature going to unsafe temperatures you’ll need to stop the experiment.
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I think the Herpstats are the best out there. Maybe when you get that second reptile or later you can upgrade to a Herpstat 2.
It’s not a huge rush, when you set up correctly it’s rare to have these catastrophic “what if” failures. Just having one or two snakes it’s still devastating to lose an animal to a freak accident malfunction. But it’s not as high stakes as for larger collections where a single probe malfunction could put 30+ snakes in extreme danger.
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Of course, I would be devastated if something happened to her! She’s such a sweet and social snake, I got so lucky for my first one lol. I was prepared to have to work with her but she came perfect. The breeder must have either worked with them a lot or she’s just a good egg. Either way, I’m happy. Going back to an earlier comment about her eating during shed, I am fine with skipping this week as I’m in no rush to make her grow. No plans on breeding or anything like that. However, I am going out of town next week on Thursday, returning Monday. Would she still be okay to skip today’s feed since I won’t be here the following feed day? I know they can go quite a while without eating but she’s only 6 months old so I’m not sure if things are different for a younger ball python.
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I wouldn’t take much stock in your statement above! 
. When I joined MM last year I had half the snakes then as I do now! 
And you already own an addictive type of snake (BP) but if you get a boa, well it’s all over Tyler! 
.
Just sayin……. 
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She will be just fine Tyler! No worries!
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We will see! I have a wife who isn’t very fond of snakes lol. It was a mission to get her comfortable enough for me to even bring this little girl into our home… But now, she is saying she’s cute and she can’t believe how friendly it is… Haven’t got her to touch or hold her yet but we’re getting there! Who knows, maybe when we get a house and I have more space, I might get a larger collection. I’m definitely not opposed to it!
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. I have a husband who absolutely despises reptiles of any kind! But after 37 years he has finally stopped saying “No” because I can’t “hear” that word anymore!
So voila! I have my own reptile/tarantula/scorpion/jumping spider room! My bedroom!
Btw acquiring more space can be dangerous……
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Funny enough, she was just talking to me a little while ago today about finishing our basement(we are moving in January) and turning it into my game/music/reptile space… So I think she is coming around lol. You would never guess it, she literally cried when I told her I wanted to get a ball python 6 months ago lol. Amazing how education can really change someone’s view on a certain animal! I actually have a cousin who is a breeder(Deadwoods Reptiles on MM) and she is already trying to get me to adopt animals from her when we move, so I may end up with a lot of snakes. I’m going to just assume it will happen lol, kinda like tattoos, once you get one, you can’t stop getting more lol. I’ve always loved snakes, though. I kept tarantulas and garter snakes when I was a kid, but didn’t have the opportunity to keep any exotics after I turned 18 and moved out in 2011. But now I can so I’m sure I’ll end up with a zoo lol. Just can’t let myself take on more than I can handle!
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As already answered, skip the meal during shed. It won’t hurt them. You can feed after shedding or just wait until next feeding cycle. Personally we wait and keep the same schedule. We don’t try to make up for it.
Also, mist the hot side of the cage before shedding starts. Try to get humidity up to 70%. This will help during shedding. Keeping it around 50% normally, is a good level. You may have to mist daily, depending on your setup, until shedding is over.
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Thank you for the advice! I have actually had her humidity steady at 70-72% on both the warm and cool side since I noticed she was in blue! I have been keeping it at 60% while she wasn’t in shed, but you would say 50% is a better target to shoot for normally? When I first got her, it was stuck around 50% and I had to do some experimenting to get it up to 60%. Once I figured that out, getting it to 70% was a breeze!
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I have found with my 16 ball pythons, for some reason they have different humidity percentage requirements to shed successfully in one piece. All mine are in tubs not racks.
If your girl does better with 60% humidity to thrive and shed without assistance then leave it at 60%.
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I would do 50% - 60% range day to say and 70% should be good during shedding. I wouldn’t keep it at 70%, they do just fine at the lower %.
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We will have to wait and see how she does at 70% first! Her eyes are completely opaque and her pretty skin is very dulled! I don’t want to mess with her too much right now. She’s still a sweetheart as I had to pick her up earlier today to do some spot cleaning and she didn’t act defensive or scared at all. I know she’s uncomfortable right now, though! Maybe next shed I will try it at 60%! I am about to go out of town this upcoming Thursday afternoon and won’t be back til Monday so I want to be sure she will be fine when I’m gone so I will leave it around 70%. I’m not exactly sure how far she is into the shed process, so I don’t know if she will actually start removing the old skin while I’m in town. 
Hopefully she does! I know the process takes 10-14 days! So sad I might not be here to see her go through her first shed in my possession. It’s like missing the first birthday of your child! I will be sure to inspect her very thoroughly as soon as I get back, checking things like her eye caps!
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I had it around 50-55% when I first got her for about a week and 1/2 to 2 weeks and she acted totally fine then. The reason I bumped it up to 70% is because everyone on Reddit says to keep it at 70-80% always… but I have noticed in other forums like here, people say not to listen to the people on Reddit lmao.
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The issue with Reddit is that the incentives and moderation turn it into a hive mind with immune system. Enough people do something that works for them and decide it’s THE right way, therefore everything else is the wrong way. There’s no real room for discussion without getting shouted out and buried in downvotes or banned.
That said, 70-80% will work, 50-60% will work, 50-80% will work. I personally keep 50-60% regularly and dump a good splash of water when I see them in shed. In my experience having more than that on the regular means much more mold and scale irritation problems. Try things out and see what works best for your snake and enclosure. Goals are minimal mold, no irritated (red) belly scales, complete single-piece sheds.
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I have definitely noticed that about the people on Reddit. I mentioned something once about another source saying something different and I think that’s the route I would take and they immediately were on the “you’re abusing your animal” train… Like okay, am I gonna listen to randoms on here or someone who has been working with these animals since the 80s? I think I’ll go with the proof of experience lol. There is definitely a hive mind or group think, you are absolutely right.
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Tyler, you will find that the people who are here truly care about other peoples’ animals as well as their own so any advice asked for as well as given is taken with the utmost seriousness. The welfare of the animals is the main objective.
There is constructive criticism given occasionally but only if advice or erroneous information is presented by someone that could potentially harm an animal, interfere with corrective/correct husbandry, or interfere with the welfare of an animal in general. The operative word here is “constructive”. Constructive criticism is a good thing.
I have never participated in Reddit but from the way it sounds, I would not even want to. It just sounds like another horrible place to be. I’ll take this community any day! 
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Oh Caron @caron I head over to Reddit once in a great while to amuse myself when I can’t sleep, and let me tell you…grab the popcorn! It’s a dumpster fire
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