questionable info on my Rainbow Boa

[RueThee]

you use a UTH (under tank heater). My BRB tank is lighted with a 9" under the counter flourescent fixture. The light has a cover which keeps it from being very bright.

[RueThee]

record keeping, observations, and trial and error

That IS science.

[Linds]

As "preposterous" as it may be, it has been my experience that light bulbs dry out air. Its not the light bulb itself, but the heat. Heat dries... (people use it to dry out foods in ovens, to dry their hair, etc). If you are just heating the surface, the surface is the thing that will dry... if you heat the air, it will dry that out much faster than it would naturally. As for Texas, is it not incredibly dry there? I don't know about Dallas, but I used to have a friend in El Paso and she said it was hot and dry. Same with friends that live right next door in Arizona... hot and dry. Of course if you put heat over water it will evaporate in to the air, no disputing that, however it will dry out at a much quicker rate than if it was the heat below making it evaporate.

[Jeff_Favelle]

That's the problem Invictus. Its not dry air. Its the fact that warm air carries more moisture than cooler air. THAT'S SCIENCE. If the air is warmer, then it has the capacity to take moisture from other parts of the cage (substrate, water dishes, the ANIMAL ITSELF!). I don't care if you have 200% relative humidity (RH). It's not about humidity. That's why I don't measure it. I'm not raising airborn water droplets. I raise snakes. If the air is hot enough, it can suck the water right out of the cage. Air escapes from the cage, substrate and water dishes don't. So if the warm, moist air is escaping the cage, where does the moisture go? OUTSIDE OF THE CAGE! And what happens to the cage? IT DRIES OUT!

Don't believe me? Try this. Put 2 cages of equal size with paper towel in the bottom. Put a 40W, 60W, 100W (whatever) light bulb in ONE cage. Wet the paper towel and turn the light on. See which cage gets drier faster. Now why is that? Heat can't make the air dry??

So simple its aggravating. Now, if that's hard to rationalize, and believe me, to some people it is, then now don't you see where past people's trial-and-error and hard work and observations and and and and and come in to play?

I do.

Cheerio...........

[Invictus]

Linds - Houston is right on the seaboard, so the humidity there is absolutely killer. (I have a lot of friends there, and they constantly complain about the humidity). Dallas is further away and at a higher elevation, so yes, it's pretty dry there. Funny how that works, eh?

Jeff - Again, what you're talking about is simple evaporation. And yes, if the top of your cage is open, of course you're going to lose way more moisture than you will if the cage has very little in the way of air exchange. My point was this:

- Putting a light bulb over top of a tub of water is an AWESOME way of getting a constant supply of moisture into the cage. I know many people who do this, and I'm sorry Jeff, but IT WORKS. For chondros as well as BRBs, and I'm sorry Jeff, but you are not the only BRB breeder out there. I know several. They use light bulbs. They have healthy, happy BRBs.
- I currently have a tub of water in my BCI cage right under the heat lamp. Yes, a lot of the humidity is escaping, but not all of it. His substrate is actually damp to the touch. (He's shedding right now, btw).
- Regardless of how much humidity you are losing, it's a matter of replacing it. If you keep the substrate moistened, the light bulb will cause that moisture to evaporate. So you re-moisten it. Problem solved.

You are still denying science here Jeff, not explaining it. What you are talking about in your little experiment up there is a no-brainer. You're talking about draining humidity without replacing it. Well DUH! Of course the paper towel will dry out! So why don't you try this:

Cage 1 - Open screen top with light bulb shining down on moistened substrate (Aspen.)

Cage 2 - Open screen top with light bulb shining down on a tub of water with moistened substrate. (Also aspen)

You'll get about 4-5 days of constant humidity, even with the light bulb on it, as long as there is a supply of water to heat up and thus cause evaporation. Cage 1 has nothing to replace its humidity, so of course it will dry out.

You still have not convinced me that light bulbs are dangerous to snakes. Keep trying though.

[Jeff_Favelle]

4-5 days? That sucks. I have over 90 ADULT snakes. I don't have time to muck around changing the humidity dishes 2x a week. I spray a Rainbow cage once, and its good for 2 weeks.

I don't care if there are other Rainbow breeders out there and I am ALWAYS the first guy to tell you that there are a million ways to do things. Big deal. The question is, what's the easiest way? After that, the question is, what's the easiest way for your experience level(s). I always give advice with the knowledge that the person receiving the advice is going to screw up. Screwing up with light bulbs is fatal almoat always. So I don't advise people to use them. Its simple.

I could breed Komodo Dragons outdoors in the Arctic with enough heat lamps and the proper setup. But why would I? Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean a damn thing. What matters is what you can do the most efficiently and what setup allows you to make the most mistakes. Because 99% of the keepers here will make mistakes.