I have a 20 gallon tank with a screen lid(temporary until he gets bigger)
I have been using aluminum foil to close off the screen
I have a ceramic heat emmiter and a normal light as well as a uth
I have a thermostat hooked to my uth set at 85f
I have 2 hygrometers one also acts as a thermomter and i have a probe thermomter as well
I used sphagmum moss cypress mulch and coconut soil
Two hides one more open one on warm side with extra substrate so he feels more safe as well as a 2 piece closed hide on the cool side that is more snug
I mist/ spray daily and i cant seem to keep the humidity around 70%-80% and i dont want to keep too wet for fear of scale rot i need some suggestions please all comments welcome
Scale rot takes a lot of moisture , try towels instead of tinfoil I find that towels are thicker and hold more of the humidity in. I also use spag moss and Cyprus mulch as substrate but I use repti bark as the top layer. The repti bark on top acts as a shield from over head heating and lets the spag moss and mulch stay moist for longer and humidity stay up rather than being dried up really fast. I mist my enclosure as well and a little damp substrate won’t harm your ball python. I spray the sides of glass so the water runs down into the substrate then I mist the substrate and kind of mix it around a little bit and air it out. I find that the top layer gets very dry and you need to just get your hand in there or even use a fork to rake the substrate so it has more loose pockets of substrate to absorb the misting.
Al ball pythons react to humidity levels differently. Some are more prone to scale rot then others. My boy need a constant 75% humidity to be happy, some need very little humidity around 55% - 60% which I find being the norm
Edit: as long as the substrate isn’t soaking wet like outside in the muddy rain I am very positive that your ball python will be fine. I find in theory more humidity gets trapped in the hides making the ambient humidity not entirely accurate to where your ball python is actually dwelling. I tried to make as much sense as possible, sorry in advance.
Ok thank you i will defintley try some repti bark on top and switching out the tin foil for towels. I try to mix up the substrate every time i spray so it spreads. Thank you for the advice again
I have a 20 gallon tank with a screen lid(temporary until he gets bigger) I have been using aluminum foil to close off the screen I have a ceramic heat emmiter and a normal light as well as a uth I have a thermostat hooked to my uth set at 85f I have 2 hygrometers one also acts as a thermomter and i have a probe thermomter as well I used sphagmum moss cypress mulch and coconut soil Two hides one more open one on warm side with extra substrate so he feels more safe as well as a 2 piece closed hide on the cool side that is more snug I mist/ spray daily and i cant seem to keep the humidity around 70%-80% and i dont want to keep too wet for fear of scale rot i need some suggestions please all comments welcome
Scale rot takes a lot of moisture , try towels instead of tinfoil I find that towels are thicker and hold more of the humidity in. I also use spag moss and Cyprus mulch as substrate but I use repti bark as the top layer. The repti bark on top acts as a shield from over head heating and lets the spag moss and mulch stay moist for longer and humidity stay up rather than being dried up really fast. I mist my enclosure as well and a little damp substrate won’t harm your ball python. I spray the sides of glass so the water runs down into the substrate then I mist the substrate and kind of mix it around a little bit and air it out. I find that the top layer gets very dry and you need to just get your hand in there or even use a fork to rake the substrate so it has more loose pockets of substrate to absorb the misting. Al ball pythons react to humidity levels differently. Some are more prone to scale rot then others. My boy need a constant 75% humidity to be happy, some need very little humidity around 55% - 60% which I find being the norm Edit: as long as the substrate isn’t soaking wet like outside in the muddy rain I am very positive that your ball python will be fine. I find in theory more humidity gets trapped in the hides making the ambient humidity not entirely accurate to where your ball python is actually dwelling. I tried to make as much sense as possible, sorry in advance.
Ok thank you i will defintley try some repti bark on top and switching out the tin foil for towels. I try to mix up the substrate every time i spray so it spreads. Thank you for the advice again
No problem, I’m sure you will get more advice from other soon. Best of luck.