Hey Guys! Question from a newb!

[snakesnack]

Well first off, I've been lurking for awhile, even before I made this account, so I guess I should introduce myself! My name's Elise, I'm an illustrator, and I have a few different reptiles but back in June I got my first BTS! He's a Merauke born late May this year named Bima! He's a big grump unless you have food to give and I think it's the cutest thing ever. I'm also blown away by how quick he's growing, head to tail he's about 17 inches currently, which is crazy because i've been used to snakes which takes years to grow, so that's been really fun to watch and measure. I spent about a year preparing for him and I still have so many frantic google searches ahah!

Anyway, he has always been sniffing and sneezing regularly which I learned is just him clearing out his nose after digging, which seems consistent with what's going on with Bima, and I also learned from this site that whistling every now and then is no big deal which happens to him. But sometimes when I'm handling him, he'll do the sniff-sneeze and it feels kind of wet? Would that be classified as discharge?

He doesn't seem to have any issues breathing and he's very active with a voracious appetite, but I've been very uncomfortable with it since he's the only one of my pets where anything like what he's doing can be considered normal so I'd just like to be triple sure haha! He is in a 48x18x18 tank, 95-100 basking spot and 80 on the cool side. His humidity gauge reads around 40-50, I have a misting machine and when I put it on higher, the whole tank gets foggy, so I guess I'm also wondering if that'd be ok for him too? He's on a mix of cypress and coco fiber right now but on my next day off I'll be cleaning his tank and doing only cypress since he greatly prefers it.

And last but not least, pictures! These are from various ages

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And one of my drawings for fun

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[Cedar]

Oh my gosh what a cutie!!! I love his cute expressions haha.

And your art is amazing!!! Just absolutely stunning ahhh I love it
(do you have deviantart bc I need to see more omg)

[alichamp]

HI and welcome!!

Re discharge: I'm not really sure what you mean that it feels wet. Is there anything there or is just evaporation from the expelled air?

Re humidity: When you boost up the mister and the air goes foggy - that's probably OK but just so long as the enclosure is not soggy wet. You want the air to be humid, not the tank to be wet. Add a couple of humid hides for him if you don't like using the mister. And here is a thread on substrates. Coco holds moisture better than Cyprus so keep it a mix or add some moss or jungle mix or something to make sure it's not too dry. Use the search box to find some good recent threads on the topic.

Your pics are great!!

[snakesnack]

Thank you so much for the replies!

And your art is amazing!!! Just absolutely stunning ahhh I love it
(do you have deviantart bc I need to see more omg)

I actually don't have a deviantart but I have a website, elise-cameron.com

Re discharge: I'm not really sure what you mean that it feels wet. Is there anything there or is just evaporation from the expelled air?

It just feels like there's a tiny bit of water (?) coming out when he sneezes, it's not actively dripping out from his nostrils but it feels like a tiny bit of mist if that makes sense.

Re humidity: When you boost up the mister and the air goes foggy - that's probably OK but just so long as the enclosure is not soggy wet. You want the air to be humid, not the tank to be wet. Add a couple of humid hides for him if you don't like using the mister. And here is a thread on substrates. Coco holds moisture better than Cyprus so keep it a mix or add some moss or jungle mix or something to make sure it's not too dry. Use the search box to find some good recent threads on the topic.

Thanks for the info, the mister has been very convenient and it doesn't make the tank wet even when it's on higher so that'll definitely work out. And I gave him a mix for that very reason actually, but he seems to be not very fond of burrowing in the areas with more coco fiber so since you mentioned that, I'll probably just replace it with something else!

[Susann]

If it's just a bit of moisture from the sneeze, I don't know that I'd be overly worried about it... of course it's hard to say exactly, but as long as we're talking you feeling a bit of humidity on your skin from the sneeze, that's totally fine; if you're however seeing droplets of stuff, and especially if they aren't totally clear, and the drop-producing sneezes happen fairly frequently, then you may want to maybe have someone take a listen to make sure his lungs and airways are clear. Having said that though, taking into account his otherwise normal behavior and having felt a bit of humidity on my skin from sneezes before, unless you are seeing or hearing anything else out of the ordinary, my guess is that he is totally fine.
Nothing wrong with having a vet take a listen though, just to be safe, if you choose to go that route.

He is a cutie for sure, and your drawing is amazing!