Hello everyone! It’s me - again.
I recently got my first BP and just wanna make sure he’s happy. He seems to be doing fantastically, but I just wasn’t sure about one thing, which is humidity.
I keep him in a 40 gallon front opening glass terrarium, and his humidity is at a very consistent 61% if I pour a bit of water into the edges of the tank. His substrate is like, 2 ish inches deep. Reptichip. I used to spray him consistently but that would only make it spike and kinda moisten his substrate too much, so I’ve been trying to let it dry out a bit more and use the pour method for a bit. He’s eating great, and he uses both the warm and cold side. I use a DHP for his hotspot of about 88 and a CHE for his colder side to keep his slate at around 77 there. Could be warmer on the substrate as it’s just barely 75 but I’ll work on that. I live in Colorado, so it’s dry and cold and I think I’ve been doing pretty decently here considering that my room is also downstairs which means that it’s even colder. I do also use aluminium foil on top of his cage.
Basically my question is, is my humidity good how it is, or should I go back to misting? I’ve heard so many that say 60% is good, and then also so many that say it’s way too low. I’ve even heard that 50% is good but that sounds far too low for me. I’d also rather not use a humid hide as I want his entire enclosure to be to his humid liking. I do realize that the overhead heating really dries stuff out too, but that’s just a price I’m willing to pay for extra heat. Should I just pour more warm water directly into his substrate instead? At the moment I use about one glass to do it. Misting also kinda cools everything down too, but he had a full shed with me from misting him at least once daily before - but it was also a bit warmer then. Let me know what you guys think! Thanks!
NOTE: I’d also rather not switch to a tub, as I spent so much money on the glass enclosure… and I wouldn’t know how to set up overhead heating for a tub.
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No need to overthink it. Between 40-60% is good. More important that it has fresh water on a consistent basis as internal hydration plays a large factor in good sheds. Snakes will drink more readily from fresh water so try to change it all the way out at least once a week, more if you can.
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@ballornothing is of course correct! I just wanted to add that I live in Colorado as well, and I mist only when my bps or retics are in shed, once a day till they shed. That seems to work perfectly for me.
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Thank you!! Very reassuring in that case.
Awesome. 
Thank you. Was planning on doing exactly that as well.
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My BP is comfy at 60% and sometimes a little more, and I only mist if it drops too low below that. I also use three little terracotta sugar saver discs as snake safe humidity stabilizers. They are soaked in water and evaporate it slowly into the air, and when they’re in the enclosure I find the humidity stays steady for longer.
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IMO 60 is plenty. In fact, for it to be consistently above that I’ve noticed the risk of infections on the belly scales goes up quickly since it usually means the substrate is staying moist.
I personally run a room humidifier at 43% set point and then let the water dishes in the rack tubs bring it up to around 50%. If I notice a snake is in shed I’ll usually pour a couple of ounces of water into the substrate in a corner to make it a little more humid temporarily. But even if I miss that I still never see stuck or broken sheds, never had an RI, etc.
When I first started keeping ball pythons I used to run higher humidity like 60-70%. But I just found it resulted in some snakes getting irritated belly scales. After targeting 50% humidity I’ve had basically no issues. Plus it’s just way easier to rely on an automatic humidifier
If 60 is working for you and your snake I think there’s no reason to change what you’re doing.
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Agree with the others on humidity.
I would like to add some other options that i used myself before going away from the glass setup. Cover the top with some sort of plastic or even tinfoil. This will help hold the heat and humidity in. Also along the door edge, where the two meet, make a gasket using regular tape that can seal the gap (fold the tape onto itself leaving a 1/4 of it not covered so you can stick it on one door edge). Also, if you have vents under the doors, cover them with tape on the outside. All of this will help. If you do need more heat, add a heat lamp to the top in one corner (nothing big or high heat, just enough to makenup the difference if it is still needed) if using a light already, add an adjustable heat pad under the tank. You can also add another water dish on the hot side, fill it with your bedding then fill it with water. This will keep longer and help keep the humidity stable.
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Thanks so much! I was just a bit worried because I often see people say that 60% is the bare minimum, so when mine goes to 59 I get stupidly worried. :’) That’s good to know. In that case I’ll stick to around 60%! I have been a bit worried about scale rot so i’ll lay off.
Sometimes I’ve noticed it comes down to an individual snake too. I have one female mojave that when she is in shed i have to get her humidity as high as possible, she tends to have bad sheds even at 60-70%. Then another female I have (bumble bee) i swear she’d have a perfect shed in the Sahara desert. So as long as you know your animal, they tend to tell you if they are comfortable with stuff like shed quality, or hunger strikes.
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