How to set up moss..?

[hunter4life]

Okay so I bought sphagnum moss or whatever it is lol I bought it to help with humidy for my BP's, currently it's in cups next to there main hide (one per cage) and I'm just wondering if I should put it in the hide or around the cage? Never used moss before, just mostly always sprayed the tanks with water. Plus for my King too, he's currently got dull eyes so he's gonna shed soon and I'd like to know how to make a moss hide for him Thanks guys!

[Mikoh4792]

Originally Posted by hunter4life

Okay so I bought sphagnum moss or whatever it is lol I bought it to help with humidy for my BP's, currently it's in cups next to there main hide (one per cage) and I'm just wondering if I should put it in the hide or around the cage? Never used moss before, just mostly always sprayed the tanks with water. Plus for my King too, he's currently got dull eyes so he's gonna shed soon and I'd like to know how to make a moss hide for him Thanks guys!

You can use it both ways. You can spread moss around the enclosure to bump up the ambient humidity or you can just keep it in one container like you have just to have one localized humid spot.

[hunter4life]

Originally Posted by mikoh4792

You can use it both ways. You can spread moss around the enclosure to bump up the ambient humidity or you can just keep it in one container like you have just to have one localized humid spot.

For my BP, should I spread all around his enclosure since he needs the high humidity? Or at least all around his hide so it's nice in there?

[Mikoh4792]

Originally Posted by hunter4life

For my BP, should I spread all around his enclosure since he needs the high humidity? Or at least all around his hide so it's nice in there?

It depends. Does your enclosure lose humidity rapidly or can you keep a constant even without the moss?For my cages I just use shapgnum moss as decoration, and I only get it real nice and damp when my snakes are going into shed.

But if you keep moss in one container( a humid hide) then it will still raise the ambient humidity, just not as much as it would if it was spread around.

I can't tell you what you should do because you can make it work both ways, you just need to know what works for you.

[Nataku]

BPs don't require super high humidity but how you want to apply the sapghnum moss depends on how quickly the cage loses humidity and how much humidity you need to add. ie Are you using a tank with a mesh top or any enclosure with a solid top? Solid tops hold humidity better.

Also, what is the ambient humidity of the room the BP is kept in?
Here where I live in Florida the ambient room humidity is already at minimum 60%+ thereby I use a mesh top and keeping the eco-earth semi-moist is more than enough humidity (I frequently have to let my BP's tank 'air out' just because it will regularly hit 80%+ humidity if I restrict the circulation much at all). In places with a lower ambient humidity, a screen mesh top will cause the humidity of the tank to dissipate very quickly and will cause you to loose whatever humidity you add very quickly. Thereby I think it would be pointless to try and add moss to a large portion of the tank with a mesh top as it will just dry out very quickly. If you had a solid/covered top and needed to add a lot of humidity, sure, add sphagnum all over the cage - just make sure its only damp and not sopping wet or you are courting scale rot.

I'd recommend doing a moist hide. If your BP is small, a cup or (what I like to use) a plastic or styrofoam box that mushrooms from the store come in. They're just a nice size for smaller snakes I find. And tall enough to stuff a good handful of moss in so the snake has plenty to bury in.
For a bigger snake, a plastic shoebox, cat litter box or other plastic container of the right size with a hole cut in it for the snake to get in and out of filled with moss is what I like.
Having the moss inside the hide with a non-permeable cover (the hide itself) prevents the moss from evaporating as quickly, creating an area where the snake can go to obtain more humidity as desired.

You can see on of the hide boxes in my baby BRBs tub here. Its a mushroom carton with a hole cut out of one end filled with sphagnum. And little holes poked in the top so I could stick some silk flowers on top just because I like my enclosures to be pretty.

[Abraxxos]

Originally Posted by Nataku

BPs don't require super high humidity but how you want to apply the sapghnum moss depends on how quickly the cage loses humidity and how much humidity you need to add. ie Are you using a tank with a mesh top or any enclosure with a solid top? Solid tops hold humidity better.

Also, what is the ambient humidity of the room the BP is kept in?
Here where I live in Florida the ambient room humidity is already at minimum 60%+ thereby I use a mesh top and keeping the eco-earth semi-moist is more than enough humidity (I frequently have to let my BP's tank 'air out' just because it will regularly hit 80%+ humidity if I restrict the circulation much at all). In places with a lower ambient humidity, a screen mesh top will cause the humidity of the tank to dissipate very quickly and will cause you to loose whatever humidity you add very quickly. Thereby I think it would be pointless to try and add moss to a large portion of the tank with a mesh top as it will just dry out very quickly. If you had a solid/covered top and needed to add a lot of humidity, sure, add sphagnum all over the cage - just make sure its only damp and not sopping wet or you are courting scale rot.

I'd recommend doing a moist hide. If your BP is small, a cup or (what I like to use) a plastic or styrofoam box that mushrooms from the store come in. They're just a nice size for smaller snakes I find. And tall enough to stuff a good handful of moss in so the snake has plenty to bury in.
For a bigger snake, a plastic shoebox, cat litter box or other plastic container of the right size with a hole cut in it for the snake to get in and out of filled with moss is what I like.
Having the moss inside the hide with a non-permeable cover (the hide itself) prevents the moss from evaporating as quickly, creating an area where the snake can go to obtain more humidity as desired.

You can see on of the hide boxes in my baby BRBs tub here. Its a mushroom carton with a hole cut out of one end filled with sphagnum. And little holes poked in the top so I could stick some silk flowers on top just because I like my enclosures to be pretty.

+1

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Lankyrob]

I provide all my snakes with one hot one cold and one humid hide stuffed with damp moss, even tho their vivs are at the required humididty anyway. They all seem to utilise the humid hide.

When i had my GTP that needed additional humidity i kept a layer of moss covering the whole floor of the viv, as long as the moss is kept moist (not wet) it will live.

[hunter4life]

Originally Posted by Nataku

BPs don't require super high humidity but how you want to apply the sapghnum moss depends on how quickly the cage loses humidity and how much humidity you need to add. ie Are you using a tank with a mesh top or any enclosure with a solid top? Solid tops hold humidity better.

Also, what is the ambient humidity of the room the BP is kept in?
Here where I live in Florida the ambient room humidity is already at minimum 60%+ thereby I use a mesh top and keeping the eco-earth semi-moist is more than enough humidity (I frequently have to let my BP's tank 'air out' just because it will regularly hit 80%+ humidity if I restrict the circulation much at all). In places with a lower ambient humidity, a screen mesh top will cause the humidity of the tank to dissipate very quickly and will cause you to loose whatever humidity you add very quickly. Thereby I think it would be pointless to try and add moss to a large portion of the tank with a mesh top as it will just dry out very quickly. If you had a solid/covered top and needed to add a lot of humidity, sure, add sphagnum all over the cage - just make sure its only damp and not sopping wet or you are courting scale rot.

I'd recommend doing a moist hide. If your BP is small, a cup or (what I like to use) a plastic or styrofoam box that mushrooms from the store come in. They're just a nice size for smaller snakes I find. And tall enough to stuff a good handful of moss in so the snake has plenty to bury in.
For a bigger snake, a plastic shoebox, cat litter box or other plastic container of the right size with a hole cut in it for the snake to get in and out of filled with moss is what I like.
Having the moss inside the hide with a non-permeable cover (the hide itself) prevents the moss from evaporating as quickly, creating an area where the snake can go to obtain more humidity as desired.

You can see on of the hide boxes in my baby BRBs tub here. Its a mushroom carton with a hole cut out of one end filled with sphagnum. And little holes poked in the top so I could stick some silk flowers on top just because I like my enclosures to be pretty.

It is a mesh top and I've put a moist towel over the one side and it doesn't lose humidity quickly! I live in Michigan so we do get humid days quite often! Would using a Tupperware cup with a hole cut in the top of the lid be okay to use? Currently the humidity in his cage is staying around 50% area so I'd like to raise it