Question regarding humidity

[Alphafemale118]

Hi Everyone

I'm Jen and a newbie to redtailboa.net. I've just bought two beautiful baby pastel rtb , and have followed the caresheet posted here to a T. However, I've read that you can spray the cage with a bottle of water once a day to help achieve humidity. I've also heard that if you use a wood substrate (I'm using repti-bark) that you shouldn't use this method to get the humidity levels up because of the possibility of overgrowth of bacteria. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I haven't gotten a hygrometer yet. Can anyone recommend a good one for me? And, don't worry guys, I'm not feeding my snakes in the tank where the repti bark is. They have seperate tanks for feeding. Also, is there such a thing as too warm? I had my snakes in a 20 gallon, with a UTH and 50 watt infared light and the temp gradient was 78-84. But when I held them they felt cool to the touch. So, I bought a CHE-100 watt and added that to the heating system and now the temp gradient goes from 86-96, which I'm thinking is too warm. I'm just going by the digital probe thermometers, which are crap. But, I read one of Morti's threads and bought a hand held infared thermometer online which should be much more accurate and I'll get that in a few more days. I just need to now if it's better for my snakes to be a too hot or too cold in the meantime. Before I added the CHE both of my babies ate for me, and were active, curious, and seemingly adjusting ok. I just got them 8/5/05. It's been about 8 years since my last snake so any help I can get would be greatly appreciated.

1.0- Pastel Red Tail Boa Female- "Keen"
1.0- Pastel Red Tail Boa Male- "Primo"

	Under Tank Heater Under Tank Heater

	Ceramic Heat Emitter Ceramic Heat Emitter: A porcelain heating device that screws into a standard porcelain incandescent socket

[xxxjustinxxx]

i used to use reptibark with some of my ball pythons and misted the repti bark, and evetuallly the water gets on the bark and bacteria forms as u said, which if the snake gets it in their mouth they could get mouth rot, and if you mist and and they lay on tope of the mist the bacteria could get onto their scales and form scale rot, so i dont particularly recommend repti-bark, i use cypress which is very good on humidity, i would recommend a temp gun sotra like this one here. http://proexotics.com/supplies.html
http://www.tempgun.com/graphics/new_...e_hand_big.jpg

well thats all i can pretty much give you hope i helped you out a little bit.

btw, welcome to rtb.net and goodluck with your new red tails. so what kind of reptiles did you have 10 years ago ? j/w

[Alphafemale118]

Thanks for the info. There's a bag of repti-bark that's going straight into the garbage. My parents use cypress mulch for their landscaping. I think they have tons of it laying around. That's what you use, right? Should I disinfect it first? How would I do that? what method do you use to keep humidity up in your tank? lol, Sorry for bombarding you with questions. I think I like these snakes more than I like men. lol. j/k. Anyways, my first pets were reptiles. I started out with lizards. Iguanas, geckos, and skinks. When I was about twelve I got a Ball Python that I absolutley loved. Unfortuantley, she was an escape artist and a few years later she got out and we never found her. That's one mistake I won't be making with these guys. Thanks for all your help.

	Iguana Iguana

[xxxjustinxxx]

i dont know if garden cypress would be safe, so im not gunna say yes or no, if you were to disinfect it i think they easiest way would be to put it in the freezer, this would kill all and any parasites in the bag i usually mist it twice a day and my humidity stays around 60%. nowe im still a fan of repti bark but dont use it very muchi used it for a uple weeks with one of my boas and we shed he had a perfect shed, i was amazed b/c i didnt mist it or anything ? another good bedding i like is aspen that good for burrowing but at the same time so it is cypress, but cypress holds humidity better. ? so pretty much the choice is your good lcuk i you need anymore help just drop me a line good luck!


-justin.

[wreckwriter]

Cypress mulch is too sharp for my taste. I like aspen. Its cheap, soft and works well for most any herp.

One question: are you housing the snakes together?

[Alphafemale118]

I am housing the snakes together. The problem is, that I didn't know much about snakes when I bought them, and of course I acquired them from a pet store, a big no-no from what I've read here. Since then I've had them checked by my Vet, who happens to also see exotics, and we've run a fecal on both and they but have come up negative for parasites which is good. My vet says it's fine for them to be housed in the same tank because they are a breeding pair and are the same species. I have two 10 gallon tanks which I use for feeding tanks, I could set them up in those instead of housing them in the 20 gallon together if you think that would be better. I want to give them as much room as possible. I'm running out of room here. I'm not quite sure what the best economical way is to get these guys into their own tanks. (while having seperate feeding tanks) What do you think? Any advice from you would be greatly appreciated.

[wreckwriter]

The problem is that eventually they'll breed, likely before they're ready.

[xxxjustinxxx]

what you should do is buy another 20, and jus get rid of 1 10 gAllon, they dont have to eat at the same time, just feed one and then feed the other one the next day ? it is not likely that they'll breed if they're both small enough to live in a 20 gallon tank ? your male will like not produce sperm until hes around 31/2 to 4 feet. so i wouldnt necessarily worry about them breeding ? just feed one on say monday leave it in their foratleast 12 hours, and then feed your boa the next day ? or a better thing to do would be too sell both 10 gallons and just buy to cheap tupperware containers, which is way cheaper and probbly dusnt take up as much room. i use those with all my snakes on feeding day well good luck.

[kasa's_Kids]

I use Repti bark in all my enclosures. When I mist with a spray bottle, I normally spray the majority of it on the glass and also real close to the heat source. Living in the Phoenix AZ area is a royal pain when it comes to keeping the environment how it needs to be. Yes I do feed all of my snakes in plastic tubs. good luck..

[RioBravoReptiles]

Originally Posted by wreckwriter

Cypress mulch is too sharp for my taste. I like aspen. Its cheap, soft and works well for most any herp.

One question: are you housing the snakes together?

YOU DA MAN! best substrate choice.. pertinant question.

Gus.