I'm using mats although the room is heated to 24-26c depending on time of year. Not had a problem. I do find if you keep something too humid it can occur, poor air flow can be another reason. My room as a fan that sucks air out and replaces it with the same temp air going in. I found that due to a lot of animals in one room the air became stale so I put this in a few years back, works a treat. If your breeding then males not being used can sometimes feel a bit stressed as can males and females doing the mating. I wonder how much RI is accociated with that. Obviously we all know about lower temps.
how about, as its winter and people turn the central heating on it dries the air out quite abit, prob dropping the humidity in the vivs quite abit to? ide think down to like 20-30% rather than say 50%, ive had a few boas with bad sheds this winter due to humidity dropping
might be wrong but thought ide input lol
This is what I thought about the heating drying the air so I have a small bowl of water sitting on the radiator to keep the humidity at about normal. I also use heat mats for mine and not had any RI problems.
We've only ever had one suspected RI in 15 years with reps. Vet treated with broad spectrum antibiotic and shifted it. Personally, I still don't think it was an RI, as the typical symptoms were not there.
I found a few years ago, that one of the corns kept on a heat mat in our house over the winter would miss the odd feed. This stopped as soon as he went into a viv with a ceramic and I suspect the ambient air temp was too low for full digestion. I honestly don't like mats, as I feel they only do half the job. They heat the snakes underbelly, but it is still inhaling air around it that is maybe too cold for normal functions. The only mats we use now are in warm rooms that are heated continuously, usually the spare bedroom which is the rep room and our living room. They seem to function fine then. This year in particular, we've found keeping the background temp up in the rep room has reduced our electricity bills a little, I suspect due to the stats and ceramics not having to work so hard to maintain the hot spot.
Can't say we've had any bad sheds, but they all have quite large water bowls, placed in the centre, which I think may be keeping the humidity about right, despite the increase in central heating in the room.
Off your using mats you want a good ambiant air temperature. My room is summer is 26-28c I lower that for winter breedings though.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Reptile Forums
12.6M posts
140K members
Since 2005
A forum community dedicated to reptile owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeding, health, behavior, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more!