Oil Diffuser without the Oil

I was wondering if keeping a diffuser in the reptile home to increase amount of moisture is a good idea or bad idea. Of course, this would not include essential oils...just water. Has anyone tried this?

Greetings. I dont think something like this diffuser is designed to produce what we are trying to create in our Sullys enclosures/rooms. A small amount of essential oils, slowly evaporating into the air for aromatic purposes, is much different than a room humidifier. I use a normal size room humidifier, and go through a gallon or two of water daily in our Sullys room. The small diffuser can never evaporate enough water to make any appreciable changes in your room's relative humidity.

I think a lot of it depends on the size of your enclosure. If you have a hatching and your enclosure is small, it could create a pretty wet environment which could lead to shell rot or a possible respiratory infection. If it's large it may not be enough.. @Maro2Bear is your humidifier used in an actual room with a lot of open air?

It might work in a small enclosure that is closed chamber. I use a Crane humidifier from target ($40). It's adjustable and very quiet, and as long as you fill it properly (not overfilling the bottom tank) it works beautifully. I used mine 2 years nonstop before it stopped working.

I sawed off the top inch of the opening and shoved a piece of vinyl tubing in (from Home Depot). Works perfectly, couldn't be happier.

Hey Stuart, from what Ive read and learned here on the Forum over the past three years, it seems like almost all keepers of sullys, outside of Florida, struggle with maintaining a high RH for their sullys, young or old. Moist orchid bark, cypress mulch etc for proper substrate, coupled with misting and daily soaking, helps maintain the required high humidity levels that from the body of evidence seems to be good for proper shell growth. I don't think ive ever read about a sully with shell rot due to high humidity ((along with proper day/nighttime temps)).

Anyhow, back to the OP's original question, in my opinion, I really don't think that an aromatic diffuser will help increase the RH in an enclosure. Unless of course...it's very small, and that's a whole other kettle of fish.

So, now I'm wondering, @TortorellaMom , how large of a sully and what size enclosure.

No you're definitely right about the humidity @Maro2Bear, I was only concerned with the substrate becoming too wet and that effecting the plastron, but after I thought about it those essential oils humidifiers don't put out a ton so it might not be a bad idea depending on the size of the tort and enclosure...I apologize for jumping the gun, thank you!

Stuart S. said:

No you're definitely right about the humidity @Maro2Bear, I was only concerned with the substrate becoming too wet and that effecting the plastron, but after I thought about it those essential oils humidifiers don't put out a ton so it might not be a bad idea depending on the size of the tort and enclosure...I apologize for jumping the gun, thank you!

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Hey no problem at all. It made me re-read what I posted and look more closely at the diffuser in question. I know the diffusers we have in our house don't raise the humidity levels. Anyhow...back to the garden, where we have a ton of fresh dandelion blooms for our Sully.

Stuart S. said:

No you're definitely right about the humidity @Maro2Bear, I was only concerned with the substrate becoming too wet and that effecting the plastron, but after I thought about it those essential oils humidifiers don't put out a ton so it might not be a bad idea depending on the size of the tort and enclosure...I apologize for jumping the gun, thank you!

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Sullies and leopards don't seem to get shell rot. They can live in very high humidity 80%+ and no rot. Redfoot, and some others get it much easier

I don't think the diffuser will give off enough to make the 80% humidity needed. A closed chamber with wetting the substrate with warm water is a cheaper easier way. I, for my yearly leopard, also put in containers of warm water and set them partially under a che.

I am struggling with getting humidity levels above 50%, even with daily spraying of environment (20 gallon aquarium with cage top wrapped with aluminum foil), I use bulbs (CHE and MVP). Temps are good...steadily above 90-100 in basking area and 80s in cool area. Tortorella is small, about 0.10 lbs. Plan is to switch envirnments when he(or she ) is a little bigger. I am going to try Reflectix next. I also do daily soaks (twice daily) in warm water. Any other suggestions? I'll hold off on diffuser.

TortorellaMom said:

I am struggling with getting humidity levels above 50%, even with daily spraying of environment (20 gallon aquarium with cage top wrapped with aluminum foil), I use bulbs (CHE and MVP). Temps are good...steadily above 90-100 in basking area and 80s in cool area. Tortorella is small, about 0.10 lbs. Plan is to switch envirnments when he(or she ) is a little bigger. I am going to try Reflectix next. I also do daily soaks (twice daily) in warm water. Any other suggestions? I'll hold off on diffuser.

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Have you soaked the substrae throughout? Remove all objects from the enclosure and dump a cup of water into the substrate at a time and mix it all up. Do this until you're substrate is moist throughout. Don't make it a mud hole but where it will keep the humidity up. Do you have the top fully covered?

Disregard my question about having the top fully covered, I saw where you mentioned the top being wrapped in foil..I apologize about missing that...