A corn who doesn't like humidity?

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So I have a corn who, when I bought him, had some sort of respiratory infection. I was, at the time, misting his cage properly. I got him some antibiotics, which cleared up the infection, but he started having issues again. Then one week I decided to see what would happen if I just stopped misting his tank. First I slowed down on the amount of misting, but that didn't do any good. Then I stopped altogether. Now would be a good time to mention that I live in CO, so it is NOT humid here. His issues cleared up as soon as I stopped giving him humidity. I soak him when he needs to shed, which helps his shedding, but besides that, the humidity seemed to be a really bad thing for him. He hasn't had any respiratory issues since. He is perfectly healthy. I don't want to start a fight about how much my snake should have humidity, since whenever I give him any he gets sick. Just wanted to know why the dry air seems better for him?

[SkyChimp]

Cuz it's dry.

Seriously, though, high humidity is a known contributor to respitory infections. High humidity apparently helps to create an environment in which bacteria/viruses can thrive.


You've done the right thing - learned through trial and error. Whatever your ambient humidity is, it should be fine. Providing a humid hide at shed time, and an occassional soak,sounds like a good plan.

[tyflier]

Do you have an hygrometer in the enclosure? If not, than you really have no idea if your humidity levels were "appropriate" before or not.

Generally speaking, corns only need 30-50% humidity, except during times of shed. Any higher than that consistently can lead to many issues including mouth rot, scale rot, and respiratory infections.

I would strongly recommend investing in an hygrometer(humidity gauge). Put it in the cage, and surpirsingly, you will most likely find that it is within an acceptable range without frequent misting, though occasional misting in the hotter summer months may be necessary.

FWIW...I live in the desert and only mist daily during a shed. For general purposes, my enclosures hover between 25-35% without misting...and it's the DESERT...