How soon?

How soon before shed should I start increasing the humidity? My girl is in blue phase now, and I've been misting the viv in the evenings to bump up the humidity. Do I need to do more?

I don't know, I'd just try to mist her.

The moist hides people have talked about a lot here, I thought my snake would HATE it because he hates being misted or soaking in the water dish. It took about a week after I put it in his tank, but he actually likes it! He's sleeping in there right now, he's starting to get opaque, so he'll shed in a week or so, but I'm glad he likes it.

Oh, I wanted to add that it seemed like many of you got your snakes into larger food than I would have though, and it seemed like I had my guy smaller stuff. Last night he ate his very first fuzzy, it was a fairly small one, but still fatter and way longer than big pinkies. He took it down like a champ.

Thanks Leia. I may put a moist towel in there now for her. I don't have room for another hide. Congrats on the fuzzy munching snake child!

MegF,

As a rule we mist our snakes as soon as we see their belly checkers go hazy. A few days after that their eyes go blue so I guess we start early. It's very dry where we live though, so we mist the repti-bark twice a day. We used to put a moist towel in the cages but they would completely dry up in about an hour. The repti-bark seems to do a good job of regulating the moisture a bit. So far their sheds have been complete.

Thanks for the tips. I put wet towels in there, and I'll see how well it keeps moist. I have been misting the tank and the substrate a bit to keep it moist. I also watered her plant a lot because she likes to lay in it when she's going to shed.

I would think the moist soil in the plant would act similarly to a moist hide, except that the moisture mostly touches her tummy, rather than her whole body. But that sounds like it would work just as well.

I'll let you know as soon as she gets her new dress on!

I live in Memphis, TN. I guess we have a lot of humidity year round. I have never misted a snake that I have kept and never had a problem with shedding. The most I have ever done to bump up humidity in an enclosure is to set the water dish above the UTH.

Well, she shed this evening. I had placed a moist paper towel under her heat lamp to keep the humidity up, and I've been misting the viv daily. Today when I put her back she stayed by the wet towel so I turned off the heat lamp. She curled up near to the basking rock, and then later she had curled up under the paper towel. Her shed was one piece this time. I only have to check her for the tail tip, which was evidently a problem spot when I got her. The kids next door will be thrilled with the whole skin! They are crazy about my girl, and want to see her all the time.

I have done some testing with a digital humidity gage.
I add a single moist paper towel 2 time a day in my racks and 3 times in my tanks.

Some of the testing was done with my rack system and some with a 20gl tank and the results did vary but not by much the biggest difference was the amount of time that the inclosure held the humidity.

By adding a single moist papertowl the humidity in my rack inclosure went up by about %50 and held there for about 5 hours.
In my 20gl tank it came up about %35 and held there for 2 1/2 hours.

Useing this method everyone of my snakes have had a complete intact shed every time.

Hope this helps.