Checkered Garter Snake

[ConcinusMan]

40-50 percent is fine. There has been debate over lighting. Some say light isn't important but my experience has been that a brightly lit enclosure with a broad natural spectrum, such as a combo reptisun UV florescent/ incandescent basking bulb has a positive psychological effect on their activity levels and appetite. Much like you and I feel more upbeat when it's nice and sunny outside, rather than cloudy and gray.

[gregmonsta]

To be honest I've never paid much attention to humidity. As long as you supply a large waterbowl the natural evaporation seems to take care of it.
Too much humidity causes problems and the substrate needs to remain dry.
Lighting is important. They are diurnal and light of sorts is required to mimic photoperiod. Again, I don't worry about it too much as my flat is well lit by velux windows so I don't implement the use of UV and simply stick to energy saving lightbulbs in my set ups.
If you keep them in a particularily dark room without a lot of natural light you should consider providing it.

EDIT - do not use UV with albinos, it can be detrimental to their eyesight.

[Stefan-A]

To be honest I've never paid much attention to humidity. As long as you supply a large waterbowl the natural evaporation seems to take care of it.

Depends on a lot of things, mainly the enclosure and the size of bowl (and distance to the hygrometer). My plastic enclosures manage to keep theirs at about 40-44 this time of year (without "assistance"), which is great compared to what I used to get in all my previous enclosures. Even with a large water bowl, there were times when it would drop to less than 20% during the winter. I think the record low was 18%, which is low enough to safely store grain.

[riley_napalm]

EDIT - do not use UV with albinos, it can be detrimental to their eyesight.

i just got my albino checkered two days ago. so you should say no to UV? uv-a or uv-b?

[ConcinusMan]

Too dang low. My snakes don't soak, and still don't have any shedding problems. I try to make 50% the minimum. It's usually 60-70% in my tanks. I mist the tanks if it gets below 50%.

[riley_napalm]

EDIT - do not use UV with albinos, it can be detrimental to their eyesight.

is this just uvb rays? i have an albino checkered garter. but i have a white LED light on mine until i get his normal lighting set up.

[gregmonsta]

i just got my albino checkered two days ago. so you should say no to UV? uv-a or uv-b?

Either

[riley_napalm]

what lighting would you suggest? i have a white LED light on there at the moment.

[gregmonsta]

That would be enough I would think .... it's the UV that causes the problems in albinos so a standard LED should be fine.

[ConcinusMan]

Yes, I neglected to mention that. Never expose an albino anything to UVA/UVB rays.

You might already know that a tan is caused increased melanin in your skin as a protection against UV rays. They have no melanin, and therefore no protection. They can sunburn and/or develop cancer.

Steve and I, on the other hand, are both homozygous for red hair and melanin deficiency.(a recessive trait that is becoming increasingly rare by the way) We fry like an egg when exposed to UV. I sunburn in about 30 minutes of sun exposure in the summer. The few skin cells we have that are capable of producing melanin, cause us to freckle instead of tan.