I got this snake on February 26th at a reptile show. The breeders had the snake for 3 years so we talked them into letting us buy the whole entire enclosure/set up w/ the snake minus the lighting they had. The enclosure pretty much looks like [post="0"]this[/post]. It's a medium sized fresh air/mesh reptarium. I mist the snake daily at least twice. There is also a large bowl of water at the bottom of the cage. When we got him he was already dull and about to shed. He's started to shed finally but has only cleared off his head. It's been about 2 weeks now and I don't know if I'm not keeping it humid enough or what. I don't want to just take him out and start pulling off the shed. The temp in the cage ranges from top to bottom from about 75 F to 80 F. I'm not sure what the humidity is and I have read that it should be kept up to 80% so maybe I'm just not keeping it humid enough. The lady made it sound like she barley misted it though. She said she just misted once before she left for work. He ate 3 anoles for me so far so I know that's not a problem. Everything other than the shedding has been fine. Should I maybe try to fasten a sheet around the 3 walls?
Time to pick up a hydrometer. Unfortunately, you really can't guess with these things. I would say there is a good chance that it's not humid enough, but the only way to find out for sure is to get a hydrometer and see exactly what the humidity is at right now.
I put one in there. It stays about 21% when not misted. I'm just wondering how the previous owners kept the snake in the enclosure for 3 years and didn't have a problem. Maybe I can at least temporarily move it to something where I can keep it more humid.
As a "right now" fix you can look into using plastic wrap over about 75% of the screening on the tank... In the winter time my crestie tank is only plexi on the bottom so I wrap that saran-wrap stuff that they sell for your windows in the winter around 3 sides and the top, works perfectly!
Well, different houses have different humidities. Even different areas of the house can vary in humidity. For example, basements are notorious for trapping moisture (especially when the air conditioning is running). Who knows where in the house the snake was being housed? It may have been in a modified utility room in the basement, or maybe there were a lot of other reptile enclosures in the same room that were helping keep the humidity up. Like I said, who knows? Anyways, definitely try covering some of the sides of the cage. I'd also highly recommend using sphagnum moss somewhere in the enclosure, whether as a substrate (if appropriate), in a large bowl, or even adhered to a background and branches. Mist this thoroughly 2-3 times a day. It holds moisture extremely well and is great for keeping humidity up. A large water bowl doesn't hurt either. If you still can't get the humidity high enough, you may want to look into a drip system of some sort. Again, utilize peat moss under the drip source to catch and hold moisture.
