ball python question

Hi guys im trying to get my Ball Pythons humidity up to 50% and im not having very much luck:(.I read that they can have issues if the humidity is not kept up. the cage is a 20 gallon long tank and i have a medium under tank heater on the worm side. im using a 40 watt blue day bulb for basking but im thinking about stop using it. I have put a beach towel over the cage and that helped a little bit. I have put a humid hide in the enclosure its a 5 ounce tupperware container i cut a hole in the top and put a bottle of water in it, its on the cold side, and i put a big bowl of water in the middle of the tank. im using paper towels for the sub but i have been contemplating using eco earth. has anyone tried eco earth on a ball python? has anyone run into this issue before?

Me and Gary keep all our royals on news paper and altho we keep them all on heat mats they can be very lazy and get burnt very easily so keep a eye on his belly for redness. humidity wise just spray the tank once or twice a day and that should raise the humidity, i'll take and post some pics of my royals setups later and post them on here(they are very basic)

Okay thanks!

I have our ball python in a 90 gallon slate bottom tank with a mix of aspen bedding and tree bark mulch (the kind you get at the flower shop for your flower beds, NOT the colored stuff, just the natural bark mulch) for his substrait and then on his cold side where his water pot is he has pea gravel. The humidity should be between 60-75% from what Ive read but Loki's is right around the 65% mark. We mist regularly and keeping a large pot of water in there helps. Avoid using lights if you can... balls are jungle floor type of pythons and don't exactly bask perse... he will thermoregulate by using his hot and cold sides but after you add a thicker substrait you may need to provide a basking spot light. Using a moist hide filled with damp sphagnum moss would do well for adding extra humidity to your viv even if he doesn't "soak" in there. The worst thing that can obviously happen from low humidity is bad sheds which can contribute to eye caps which are a bit of a pain to remove so try your best to keep his humidity up. The blue light will dry things out a lot faster. You can also soak your snake (Loki loves his baths) a couple times a week to make sure he is properly hydrated.

If you're super worried, and you have the proper sized UTH, you can put your water bowl over where part of the UTH is and it'll create more humidity. You'll be refilling it a little more than usual but it's tried and true.


I use "expensive" zoo med aspen for my enclosure, but I'll be buying cheap hobby store aspen when I need more.

i took the light out and the humidity is already at 50% and misting the enclosure puts it around 60% 65% thanks for all the great advice. Now I can start looking for a bigger tank i would like to get a 40 gallon for it.