Humidity meters?

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Synveil

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Okay so I've bought a rather cheap digital humidity meter off ebay and its showing temperatures fine, they seem to match up to my thermostat and laser thermometer.

The problem I'm having is it showed 99% humidity when I first put my substrate in that was still semi-damp (no more so than if I were to mist it down). I've had the doors open the entire time, run the heat light for a few days and had a fan running airflow through the enclosure for a couple of days, the substrate is almost entirely dry to the touch now and has been for a couple of days, but the meter is still reading 70-85% humidity.

What do you guys use for reading your humidity? I think my meter might be faulty for the humidity side of things.

PS. I dont have a reptile in the enclosure during all this, just working on setting everything up and working right.
 
i dont think you need one, you can tell by the enclosure whether its too humid or not, (condensation will gather under the roof of hide, aswell as the enclosure sides if its too high)

if it is too low during a slough, i chuck a container of warm water in and humidifies the enclosure in minutes, once the enclosure is humid, i take the water out, and wait for the slough and then clean the enclosure and give it a dry down
 
Makes sense, currently it all is dry, there's no condensation buildup or anything, I intend on making a Humidity box for when the snake I get decides to start shedding, they look like a brilliant idea and will give the snake the option of setting it's own humidity. Is just kinda worrying me that the meter I purchased is showing 20 to 30% higher humidity than i should be aiming for.
 
Not sure why you would need to measure humidity unless you were keeping sub tropical species.

Never felt it necessary to use one myself
 
Not sure why you would need to measure humidity unless you were keeping sub tropical species.
Well I plan on getting a Woma python as my first reptile, most sources say humidity around the 50% mark is the aim for them (obviously unless they are shedding). This is mainly what I've been going off so have been tryna make sure I can regulate temperature correctly before getting the snake, I can do that fine, Now I shifted to being able to regulate humidity efficiently, but if making sure the snake isn't on damp substrate (to avoid scale rot) is good enough, then I should be pretty set.
 
I mainly keep dragons,Central Beardies,Pygmies,Central Netted and Frillies and all my enclosures have combo temp/humidity gauges because humidity in desert creatures is a big problem, not so much with frillies (although I currently have 1 with an RI, WTF?)
Since I expanded my collection to include pythons and now Lacies I still put combo gauges in all my enclosures because I like to know what is going on.
 
Yeah the one I've got is a temp / humidity meter, the temp is showing as correct, humidity is showing high even though I'm certain the enclosure isn't that humid, Substrate has been left in the sun, then left in the enclosure with the light on, and with the doors open / fan running to get airflow through it, and periodically sifted through to bring up any possible damp spots. I would think the humidity part of this meter is busted most likely, was curious about what the best means of measuring the humidity would be.
 
Well I plan on getting a Woma python as my first reptile, most sources say humidity around the 50% mark

I have BHP's and never worry about it.
You need to take into account the humidity in your location, right now at my place the humidity in the air is 60% so unless I was to be running a dehumidifier I would expect 50-60% humidity indoors.

average-relative-humidity-australia-point-cook-victoria-au.png
 
Measuring the humidity isn't really too important,and for most people in most situations it's not necessary. Most people are able to sense when it's wet or dry, and most species are fine with anything in between. Reptiles usually like the humidity a bit above the ambient household level (Paul: It is usually significantly different from outside, it's more stable, and your chart shows averages, ignoring the huge fluctations which frequently occur). Sticking a water bowl in a plastic tub or wooden box usually takes care of this. Some species such as most small monitors prefer it more dry than average household humidity, and conveniently, a blasting hot basking lamp in a confined space usually does the job nicely.

There's a bit of a misconception people have about species like Womas needing low humidity. They come from hot, dry deserts, but stick one in the typical temperatures and humidities found in their habitat and they'll be dead within hours. They spend most of their time down in humid burrows. Keep in mind that they manage to find places to incubate their eggs (which we incubate in a closed plastic box filled with wet substrate!), so they do have access to a range of conditions which would surprise most people. Womas more or less thrive in the same conditions are Carpet Pythons.

Measuring humidity is a lot of fun and will teach any curious and intelligent person a lot about the physical world and the way animals interact with it, especially if you run around outside measuring humidity levels in a range of environments at different times of day and year and in different weather conditions. Wild reptiles certainly behave massively differently depending on humidity, and it's fun and somewhat useful to anyone aspiring to be an advanced keeper to be aware of and understand it.
 
That all makes sense, so all in all i don't have to be too critical, as long as i'm not throwing my enclosure to extremes, and if i do either way it should be VERY noticeable. You suggest moving about testing humidities all over though, what would you say to use for this purpose? there isn't something as simple and mobile as the temp guns for humidity is there? cos that would just be awesome if there was.
 
That all makes sense, so all in all i don't have to be too critical, as long as i'm not throwing my enclosure to extremes, and if i do either way it should be VERY noticeable. You suggest moving about testing humidities all over though, what would you say to use for this purpose? there isn't something as simple and mobile as the temp guns for humidity is there? cos that would just be awesome if there was.

Exactly, if you don't want to bother, it's perfectly fine not to. It's interesting and sort of important, but nothing like temperature (watching and understanding temperature should be priority #1 for anyone wanting to be a good reptile keeper), and yep, as long as it's not obviously extreme, it's usually not outside the okay range. Common sense should be sufficient.

Unfortunately, no, there's nothing as quick and convenient as a thermometer gun for measuring humidity. There are plenty of mobile devices, including small and cheap ones, but not nothing which takes an instant reading. Keep in mind though that many of us were playing around learning about temperatures before we had thermometer guns. Those things made life a lot easier!
 
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