Relative Humidity - how much is too much for my snake room?

[Bristen]

The reason I'm asking is that I purchased a small humidifier to bring relative humidity at about 60% in my snake room (all I have now are Ball Pythons, and I've read many keep ambient air humidity at about this level). I found that there was a lot of condensation on the window of the room. Will 60% RH break something in my room? We're just in a new house and I was not able to make a snake room in the basement right now, so we're using what was supposed to be our spare bedroom for the snakes until we manage to move them downstairs (will be years before we get there I fear). Will I get mildew and rotting paint, baseboards curling, etc??

Thanks for your input.

[Invictus]

Not likely at 60%. Mold and mildew usually only form with much higher humidity and more stagnant air than an entire room would have.

[Bristen]

thanks for the reply Invictus. My house has a heat pump central heating system, but I cut the heat and air return off for the snake room. I placed a heavy bathroom carpet on the heat duck on the floor to plug it and the cold air return duck was plugged with a piece of paper taped to the grill... I also placed a beach towel under the door to prevent a colder-air draft coming into the room. I heat the room independantly using a small space heater and a programmable thermostat (this room is hotter than the house and has night-time temperature drops with sundown).

Since there is no air coming in or out of this room (other than we go in and out of the room), I was afraid the humidity may become a problem. The room is a little over 100sq ft (I think it's 110sq ft). Also, there are small fluctuations in RH.. I've noticed sometimes it gets a little higher than 60%. The highest I've seen it since I've installed the humidifier last night is something like 62% and a low of 57%.

Thanks,
Bristen.

[jfmoore]

Hi Bristen -

Well, maybe not “baseboards curling” but you might get mold/mildew as well as some paint peeling if you maintain the conditions you describe throughout the winter. I did last year. Problem areas were around the window glazing, particularly at the bottom where the moisture from condensation flowed (both mold/mildew and peeling paint); and behind banks of cages placed against uninsulated interior walls which contacted exterior walls (mold/mildew). As may be obvious, I can’t distinguish between mold and mildew. “Black mold” was my generic problem. Your situation may be different since your new home is presumably better insulated than my older one. I thought I was through with bleach when I switched to Nolvasan for cage disinfecting. Wrong! At least the walls were white to begin with so I didn’t have to worry about the bleach ruining the color. First tip I would give to anyone designing a new snake room from scratch - put anything heavy on casters so it can be easily moved.

-Joan

[mykee]

It may be more difficult, but maybe you should try to get the humidity up to 60% in the enclosures rather than the room. May end up avoiding some problems in the future.

[Bristen]

Yeah, I may have to do that.. the relative humidity in my snake room was about 38% to 42% before I got the humidifier which was way too low. My new rack has such good ventilation that it was difficult to keep the enclosures humid enough. What I can do however, is set the humidifier at something like 50% which is way better than what it used to be and mist the enclosures from time to time. I wonder what guys like Jeff do? I think I remember him posting that he kept his Ball Pythons in a room at 60% RH... did I imagine that? If not, why doesn't he have rotting walls? hmmm....

Thanks for the replies all.

[jfmoore]

You didn’t say how your ball pythons were doing. Do they shed in one or two pieces most of the time? Without soaking or having to be soaked? Or without their cages resembling a swamp? If so, then don’t worry about any particular percent humidity, although I realize numbers can be helpful when we are comparing notes. As mykee suggested, raising the enclosure humidity can do the trick.

My humidity problem last year was primarily a closed doors and steam heat kind of thing, although I exacerbated it by running a warm air humidifier in one room that was losing a lot of heat and humidity. Even though I keep after my ball python cages with my garden sprayer in the driest months, I allow the humidity to fluctuate rather widely. Some people advocate utilizing moistened substrate in the hide box. I do basically the opposite by dampening outside of the hide where the python is holed up

-Joan.

[Slannesh]

Man i'd kill for the humidity in my house to be 30-40%

Canadian winters suck... literally. I think the average humidity in my house at the moment is about 10% Needless to say keeping the humidity in my BP enclosure is a daily excersize.

[eyespy]

Another option if you like humidifying the room rather than individual cages is to use a good quality air filter in the room. Make sure it has HEPA filtration to 0.5 or smaller microns and you won't have a mold problem no matter how high the room humidity as long as you change the filters regularly.

[BoidKeeper]

What about a ceiling fan? My room is down to 50% now but in the summer it was sometimes over 65%. I think the fan in my room is making the difference with the condinsation and mold and stuff because I've never had a problem yet. Maybe even a floor fan that rotates might help just to move the air around for you.
Cheers,
Trevor
PS
Togo and Popey have a date tonight. I'll be diming the lights and putting on some Barry White....oh yeah!

[Bristen]

Hi Joan,

Originally posted by jfmoore
You didn’t say how your ball pythons were doing. Do they shed in one or two pieces most of the time? Without soaking or having to be soaked? Or without their cages resembling a swamp? If so, then don’t worry about any particular percent humidity, although I realize numbers can be helpful when we are comparing notes. As mykee suggested, raising the enclosure humidity can do the trick.

well, my Ball Pythons appear to be ok.. but I have noticed that my female "whistles" a bit when she gets nervous... she has a birth cranial deformation that may affect her sinous a little bit, but I was concerned that the humidity may of been too low. As far as shedding, they haven't shed since they are in their new rack yet. I used to keep them in RubberMaids with covers. When I misted, the humidity stayed pretty good inside the container for a few days. The new rack has better ventilation and basically dries up overnight. I don't think the sheds would be that great without the extra humidity.

Originally posted by jfmoore
My humidity problem last year was primarily a closed doors and steam heat kind of thing, although I exacerbated it by running a warm air humidifier in one room that was losing a lot of heat and humidity. Even though I keep after my ball python cages with my garden sprayer in the driest months, I allow the humidity to fluctuate rather widely. Some people advocate utilizing moistened substrate in the hide box. I do basically the opposite by dampening outside of the hide where the python is holed up
I kept the humidifier at 60% and so far the only condensation I could see was on the window. However, the condensation on the window didn't appear to be enough to flow down on the window sill. Also, the way the window is made (vinyl), the water probably wouldn't break anything (other than mildew and/or mold I guess). I'm going to try it for a little while and watch things closely to see if any problems will develop. Worst case scenario, is drop room humidity to 50% or something like that and mist the enclosures everyday or every other day. So we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for your interest in this matter :-)
Bristen.

[Bristen]

Originally posted by eyespy
Another option if you like humidifying the room rather than individual cages is to use a good quality air filter in the room. Make sure it has HEPA filtration to 0.5 or smaller microns and you won't have a mold problem no matter how high the room humidity as long as you change the filters regularly.

hmmm. this is interesting.. what's HEPA filtration and what does it cost?

Thanks,
Bristen.

[Bristen]

Originally posted by BoidKeeper
What about a ceiling fan? My room is down to 50% now but in the summer it was sometimes over 65%. I think the fan in my room is making the difference with the condinsation and mold and stuff because I've never had a problem yet. Maybe even a floor fan that rotates might help just to move the air around for you.
Cheers,
Trevor

well, it's funny you mention that Trevor... I just setup a litte table-top 15" fan in the room yesterday. I aimed the fan slightly towards the ground (he's about 5' off the ground on top of an unused cage) and also towards the window. There doesn't appear to be any condensation on the window at all since I've done that. Room temperature is much more even too. I was having a bit of trouble with "layering" in the room (the floor are was much cooler than air close to the ceiling... It's good to know that somebody is able to do it without everything falling apart. Thanks for the note!

Originally posted by BoidKeeper
PS: Togo and Popey have a date tonight. I'll be diming the lights and putting on some Barry White....oh yeah!
Hope it goes good! Nothing better to see Popey my het albino male produce a bunch of 50% het albino females :-) That would be nice as it would at least prove he capable of breeding :-) Keep me posted.

Later,
Bristen.

[BoidKeeper]

Well as of this morning still nothing. I will keep her in there until I see them hooked up or three days. Then I'll give him a 2 day break and try someone else. After they've all been through I'll try her again. I've got number 4 coming up to weight too so maybe he'll have 4 to breed and not just 3.
Thanks again,
Trevor