I am having a real problem with the humidity in Claudia's viv. if i leave it to it's own devices it around 25%! I have a large surface area water bowl in there and i've put a wet cloth directly under the heat lamp (ceramic) but this only raises it to around 30%. I have tried spraying the walls and foliage and this brings it up a treat but only for about half an hour then its too low again. i accept that i have a dry house so i have now put a humidifier in the room, but with that running all the time it still only brings it to 35% ish. So what i'm thinking now is to put in some high flow vents in the side of the viv and i can direct the humidifier towards them to help it penetrate the viv but i'm worried this will mess up the temps which are spot on at the moment. Has anyone got any thoughts on this? how can i raise it without absolutly saturating the inside of the viv which is obviously not the solution. And will putting in a damp hide permenantly help - most people only seem to use them to assist shedding.
If you can move your finger in a straight line from the probe to the heat source then the radiative heat warms up the black probe and dries out the air passing into it. Hide it behind something so its out of the wrath of the bulb but don't cover it over as the air still has to get to it.
Cheers Lotabob. I've taken your advice and played about with the location of the probe. The reading has increased but not greatly, but your proberly right that's its the hygrometer and nothing more as it doesn't exactly feel like a dry arid desert in the viv. Anyway Claudia went into blue yesterday so we'll see how she sheds. I have of course put a damp hide now so if she sheds without any grief I'll know it's all ok and chill out a bit!
If you open the viv place your face just above the door (make sure the snake isn't anywhere in strike range) and you'll feel the whoosh warm humid air blast past your face.
Humidity aids shedding and skin condition it is a bit of a balancing act but room humidity in most houses is around the 50% mark which is the lower end of the humidity range so for the most part very little needs to be done to increase humidity apart from around shedding time where a little bit extra just gives the snake a better chance at a good shed.
Low Humidity
Posted - 22/06/2011 : 16:54:35
