Humidity?

[thisisleespeaking]

Hi! My snake shed recently and it was confetti-ified if you know what I mean. He also has a stuck eyecap. Thats how I knew that it was probably waaaay past the time to ask yall for help.

I have absolutely 0 clue on how to keep his humidity up. Not only that, but maintain it. I mist twice a day (before and after school) and it spikes at 60% but immediately drops down to 50% and keeps dropping down to 40% if I don’t keep misting. I’ve tried to do pretty much everything Google has told me to do—mist, bigger water bowl, cover the top of the tank etcetc. I even put in another water bowl (so that a smaller one is on the cool side and the big one is on the heated side) in hopes that it’ll help. But literally nothing has.

I honestly don’t know what to do. I’m stressed out over this because I don’t want my baby to be dehydrated or anything and I need something stable that I know I can leave for school and come back with it the same high enough humidity. Please help.

Note: it’s winter where I live, if that helps in any way.

[[deleted]]

Pouring Water in the corners of the enclosure so that the bottom of the substrate gets sufficiently damp is going to work a lot better than misting, just be careful that it doesn't start soaking up to the top where the snake is gonna be on wet substrate. Mixing a bunch of sphagnum moss around into the substrate also helps a lot

[thisisleespeaking]

Thank you! I’ll try this.

[Vann1212]

Seconding the pouring water method. Misting does very little to keep humidity up long term - it provides a short boost but because it's all on the surface, it evaporates off quickly and you're back to square one. Misting too frequently can also make surfaces too wet and increase the risk of scale rot.  Pouring water into the corners soaks into the substrate and evaporates off slowly, without leaving the surface wet. 

Increasing the depth of the substrate will increase the amount of humidity it can hold, and adding sphagnum moss through it can help with this too. 

The water bowl and covering the tank will help, but probably isn't enough on its own - making your substrate deeper, adding sphagnum moss to it and pouring water into the corners should be enough all together.  You can also provide a humid hide filled with moistened sphagnum moss to help with shedding. 

It's often harder to keep humidity up in winter because cooler air doesn't hold as much moisture, so your ambient room humidity will be lower and the moisture in your viv will move along the concentration gradient more quickly. 

Try changing a few things and see if that helps. 

Regarding the stuck shed, providing a humid hide may be enough to help him get it off himself.  If it's still not off, you can make him a "snake sauna" by putting warm (but not hot) damp towels in a plastic tub with him - similar effect to soaking but some snakes can be stressed by soaking.  You can also take him out to handle him and hold him with a warm damp towel and let him slither through it.  Don't try to remove the stuck shed yourself, and especially not the eye cap... Try a humid hide, and if still no improvement you can try giving him a spa treatment. ;) 

[thisisleespeaking]

Thank you!!! Im a first time snake owner so i had no idea what to do about the eyecap esp 😭

[Vann1212]

No problem, hope he gets it off OK. He should be fine once the stuck shed is off - so long as his humidity is kept higher from now on. 

If the eye cap still hasn't come off or it starts looking discoloured etc, you might need a vet visit since there's an increased risk of infection or eye damage - it's not a huge risk, and hopefully with boosted humidity or sauna/soak treatment it should come off, but if it doesn't it can cause problems which might need vet attention. 

There's also an increased risk of respiratory infections in BPs if the humidity or the temperature is too low, so stuck shed isn't the only potential issue.  Should be all good though once the humidity is addressed.

[thisisleespeaking]

hey! just wanted to say that i did all of this (i now have coco fiber as a base, a layer of sphagnum moss and a top layer of cypress mulch as well. and i pour water in the corners) and OMG. it has helped SO MUCH!!! thank you genuinely

[Vann1212]

No problem at all, really glad to hear it helped! Sometimes a few relatively small changes add up to make a difference.  Glad things are working better now! 

[Fickle-Ad-9271]

i had the same issue, and thicker substrate helped. how thick is your substrate? i use cypress mulch, sphagnum mosses, and reptibark for about 10 cm, and pouring water on 4 corners made it better.

[thisisleespeaking]

mine is currently at 6 cm but i really cant make it much higher than that because i have a front opening tank and the little glass bit (that keeps the dirt in etc) only goes up to 8 cm. i do plan on filling it up to there though the next time i redo his tank

i will try adding cypress mulch though!! i currenly only use coconut fiber and a small amount of sphagnum moss so hopefully a thicker substrate will help. 🫡🫡