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Humidity and Eco Earth

rachow

rachow

New member
Hello all,

It was time for a deep cleaning of my viv, so I went to the store to get more aspen, but they didn't have the type I wanted. I had been playing with the idea of switching to Eco Earth after I saw a post here about how someone's corn loved it, so I got some of it. One of the bags had quite a bit of moisture in it, enough to cause condensation in the bag. The other one was drier. My snake loves it, the first thing she did was burrow through it. I had not been using a hygrometer since she moved to her newer, bigger viv, because I'd never had a problem with ambient humidity. However, I moved the hygrometer in today (the type with a dial, not digital). The sticky back doesn't work, since it's been moved, so I had it on the bottom of the cage. A couple of hours after I put it in, it read 90%. I assumed it was because the back of it was a little big buried in the substrate, so I moved it higher, to the top of one of the fake trees. Now it says 60%. It's probably because it's farther from the substrate. It's about half way between the substrate and the top of the viv. My snake's last two sheds came off in a couple of pieces, so it's probably better to have more humidity. Should I get a better hygrometer or should I just monitor for signs of too much humidity (resp. issues) and watch her next shed? It'll probably be a couple of months until she sheds again. I don't know of anyway to decrease humidity. Maybe the substrate will dry out on it's own given enough time. Temp is maintained with a heat pad on the bottom with a thermostat probe right on the glass set for 86. Water bowl is halfway between the cool side and warm side. She seems comfortable with the temps. She spends about half her time on each side. Sorry for such a long post. She is my first and only snake and even though she's almost 4 years (and I've had her since she was a hatchling), I worry about her. So has anyone had any experience with eco earth and humidity? I'm willing to change back to aspen, but she seems to like the eco earth.

Thanks a bunch,
Rachel
 
i have been using eco earth since the beginning and i like it alot.. it soaks up the poop real good so u can easily scoop it out, it keeps moisture in for humidity but eventually itll all dry up, when i put new "dirt" in the tank it says ur suppose to let it dry but i just put it in moist, it dries up in about two days or so completely.. all three sheds of my snake has came out perfectly fine in one peice so im assuming the eco earth does its job, id recommend it to anyone, my opinion.
 
I use eco-earth for both my corns and Brazilian Rainbow Boas. If you believe it to make your enclosure too humid, just dry it out more. Sun bathing is a good way to do it. Although I never ran into a problem with eco-earth making my tank too humid. If you keep yours in a tank with a screen top, quite a bit of the humidity should escape.
 
I switched to eco earth a while back and personally I love it, I prefer it starts out dry when I move it into a viv but if it get's damp from the corn's water bowl or anything it soaks it up and creates great burrowing structures for your corn. If you want a visual snake though I don't know that I'd recommend it as both my corns became burrowers and stay hidden most of the time in their substrate instead of their hides where they can be seen throughout the day.
 
Yah, since we added the moss, ours is not in the hides either, but in the corner under the substrate..
 
I am in Utah, where it is pretty dry, and I use Eco Earth for my BP and BCI; it works great to keep the humidity up. I also have a damp shedding hide I use with my corns, I fill that with Eco Earth that is just a little damp. Since I started putting that into the cage where a corn is going into shed, I have never had a problem shedding. I use aspen with my corn snakes for the primary bedding material, they love the Eco Earth shedding hide though!
 
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