How much hummidity is too much?

[Vengeance]

Bet this isn't something you see everyday but I wondering how much hummidity is too much? Mine seems to be hovering lately between the 70 - 78% mark on a daily basics is this too much?

[marisa]

I don't want to say any for sure number, but mine hovers between 65 and 75% when not shedding, and 80% + when they are because I mist for a couple days and sometimes dump the water dish. Both are doing fine.

Marisa

[Vengeance]

Yea I didn't think it would be a problem, I just wanted to make sure.

[MouseKilla]

I've often wondered if all the humidity was a mould magnet but I use newspaper as a substrate and change it at least once a week so I don't think there is much opportunity for anything to grow in the newspaper itself. Other than that I wonder about humidity as it relates to skin and respiratory health.

I don't mean to hijack the thread here but my question would be whether there is any correlation between the nice clean sheds we all like to see and those other concerns? In other words, if eighty percent humidity is what gets you good sheds does that indicate eighty percent is the right humidity level for that animal's skin and respiratory health?

[Big Mike]

I don't know what the best humidity is...but wouldn't giving the snake a choice be the best scenario?

Giving them a temperature gradient and allowing them to thermo-regulate themselves is best for them. So doing the same for humidity should be best for them too...shouldn't it?

OK, so creating a humidity gradient may not be practical but we can give them the choice. A big water dish and/or a humid hide along with dry warm hides.

What do you think?

[Colin Friesen]

Righto Big Mike!!!!

I find that offering a humid hide works great!

[MouseKilla]

That is the difficulty with toying with humidity levels, it isn't as easy to provide a gradient as it is with temperature. It's also much more difficult to measure humidity inside humid hides as compared to the rest of an enclosure. As for the big water bowl thing, I'm beginning to think it's a myth. I use big water bowls but I don't find they bring the humidity up much, if at all even at the hot spot. I find the only way to maintain decent humidity, especially with BPs, is to frequently dampen the substrate. Of course once you've done that there is no more gradient.

[Big Mike]

In my theory...the big water bowl is not to raise the humidity but to allow the snake to soak if he wants to. Also, I don't think that it is necessary to measure the humidity in the humid hide...it should be close to 100%. We count on the snake to not spend any more time in there than is good for him.

[Vengeance]

Right now I have a 50 gallon aquarium and I don't mist and I am getting a 70-78% humidity level. All I have is the large water bowl in their. The Paper towel I have down now seems to keep the humidity much higher then when I had the other substrate. I most likely will be switching back because I also find that the paper towel doesn't hold the temperatures as well either. But I never have to mist to keep it at 60%.

[MouseKilla]

I don't know where all that humidity is coming from if you aren't misting at all.... that's quite confusing. I see that you live about an hour away from me and not in South America so I'm assuming that the ambient humidity in your house is somewhere around 30% this time of year as it is in mine. If all that humidity is coming from just a water dish at the hot spot it makes me wonder just how hot your hot spot is. I'm no good with gallon sizes but I believe the tank I have my female in is 24 x 12.5 x 12.5". I have an 8 x 8 x 3" water bowl with a 60w bulb burning directly down on it. I have a wire type lid on it that is 3/4 covered with a damp towel. All that alone only gets me to maybe 40% humidity so I find myself misting to gain the other 20% or so that I figure she needs. I can't figure out what I'm doing differently.

[Big Mike]

Last year sometime, someone on this site was testing hydrometers and came to the conclusion that they are not very accurate.

There is no point in fussing over the exact humidity level if you are not sure that your measuring equipment is accurate.

[MouseKilla]

I don't really have anything to compare my hygrometer to but it's a digital one with a thermometer and external probe. It wasn't an expensive one at all but the thermometer works very well, though I can't really say whether the hygrometer works equally well. I tend to think it's at least reasonably accurate, much more so than the silly, plastic stick-on kind I would hope.

[Big Mike]

Actually, from what I have heard...the most accurate/consistent hydrometers were the cheap stick on ones with the needle on a dial. The digital ones had readings that were very inconsistent while the cheap dials are usually in the ball park.

[Vengeance]

I have a digital one as well that does not have an external probe, it only checks the mabiant air temp and humidity. But I'm pretty sure it is accurate. When I take the lid off my cage it immediatly begins to drop to usually what the overall humidity that the entire room is at, and as soon as I put the lid back on it gradualy slimbs back up. This of course means that it is able to tell the differance in humidity levels but doesn't tell me if they are acurate. I guess I should go buy one of those cheaps ones and see if I get the same reading. If both give me the same reading they both can't be wrong.

[Tigergenesis]

Actually, from what I have heard...the most accurate/consistent hydrometers were the cheap stick on ones with the needle on a dial. The digital ones had readings that were very inconsistent while the cheap dials are usually in the ball park.

I have consistently heard exactly the opposite. I've found what others say they've found w/ regards to the stick ons - I've gone into a store and looked at all the stick ons and seen them all have very, very different readings from one another just sitting there on the shelf next to eachother. You're the first person I heard say the stick ons are more reliable.

I use digitals with probes and I have a temp gun to always double check them.

[Vengeance]

Originally posted by MouseKilla
I don't know where all that humidity is coming from if you aren't misting at all.... that's quite confusing. I see that you live about an hour away from me and not in South America so I'm assuming that the ambient humidity in your house is somewhere around 30% this time of year as it is in mine. If all that humidity is coming from just a water dish at the hot spot it makes me wonder just how hot your hot spot is. I'm no good with gallon sizes but I believe the tank I have my female in is 24 x 12.5 x 12.5". I have an 8 x 8 x 3" water bowl with a 60w bulb burning directly down on it. I have a wire type lid on it that is 3/4 covered with a damp towel. All that alone only gets me to maybe 40% humidity so I find myself misting to gain the other 20% or so that I figure she needs. I can't figure out what I'm doing differently.

Was just going over some old posts and saw that I missed this one sorry. I'm able to keep humidity at 60% and above without misting because of the lid I have on the tank. I have to thank Slannesh for helping me come up with the idea but what I did is create a plexi glass lid that fits on the small edge on the inside of the 50 gallon tank. With that lid I then drilled holes all the way around the edge of the lid, but I drilled them at a 45o angle. This way any humidity trying to escape out the holes since it rises straight up hits the plexi glass first so it doesn't escape as quickly. I can post a pic of the lid when I get home tonight, but it has really worked wonders. I don't have to mist and I don't have a problem with condensation building up on the glass either.

[MouseKilla]

I would be interested in seeing that design for sure. The relative humidity in my house is currently in the low 20% range so trying to get 60% has become a chore, it may be though that my house is particularily dry for some reason. I am currently in the process of rehousing all my snakes but for now I'm stuck with screen lids with damp towels and spraying several times a day.

[jathoma]

I live in Houston where it's generally humid all the time, except for this time of year.

I use a stick-on and inside Cain's rubbermaid, the humidty lingers between 60 and 70% (my current substrate is Repti-bark, which tends to hold moisture a bit, so that may add to the level).

I haven't used any other types of humidity guage, but when I reach inside (and I can say this with authority living in one of the more humid areas of the US) I'd say that the reading "feels" about right...

He shed in one piece last week (while I was out of town) and I didn't have to leave my dad any special instructions while he was watching him for me (I KNOW he didn't really want to open the cage and reach in there for any reason - he's a wimp like that).

I found that I can boost the humidity about 10-15% by simply putting "just above" luke warm water in his dish....and it takes about 3-5 days to go back to normal with the air flow I have in the sides of the rubbermaid.

[Edwin]

My ball's terrarium is at around 60% humidity, and I provide a humid hide which is close to 100% humidity. I do not believe in placing the water bowl under the hot spot, as warm water is a breeding ground for bacteria. So far, nothing but perfect sheds.

For humidity gauges, I have had no luck with those analog humidity gauges from petstores or from gardening centres/dollar stores. The readings always seem way off (e.g. 10% humidity directly above a fogger). I have since switched to digital thermometers/hygrometers for all my terrariums, and I find them much more reliable.

[MouseKilla]

What makes a good humid hide? I add another layer of newspaper that overlaps part of one of the hides so she can get underneath it and that layer is sprayed down often.

[Edwin]

I simply use a Tupperware with a small hole cut at the top. Depending on the snake, I use either damp spaghnum moss or damp paper towels. The small hole prevents the moisture from evaporating too quickly, and balls like snug hides.

[Vengeance]

Here is the lid.....

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/3606Lid-med.JPG

It's a little warped and has a few melted spots but that was just my learning experiance before I even put Fred in the tank. I found out that leaving a heat lamp about an inch away from the plexi glass resting on a wire lid is not far enough away to have it not melt :D