Moisture and lighting

Hello I am a new tortoise owner and was wondering how I can regulate my humidity in my enclosure. When I go look at my enclosure for my tortoise I find that the humidity keeps going down really low just after a couple of hours.

I also want to know about the lighting. When should I put UVA or UVB lights on? They also say to keep your lights on for at least 12 hours but what do you do for the rest of the time?

kinda new at this as well for moisture i just use a squirt bottle and mist spike's enclosure and well him too every few hours. it drys up fairly quickly but it stays damp in his hide.
during the hours the powersun is off i have a heat lamp (red) thats on to keep it nice and toasty. its better to use a ceremic heater going to get mine this weekend ...

I have a ceramic heat emitter to keep heat up in the enclosure, I also have coco coir as a substrate with sphagnum moss scattered about that I spray in the morning and night. The moss and coir hold moisture very well, and help me keep the humidity at acceptable levels. Is your enclosure enclosed? Or is it open top?

mtlove1492 said:

kinda new at this as well for moisture i just use a squirt bottle and mist spike's enclosure and well him too every few hours. it drys up fairly quickly but it stays damp in his hide.
during the hours the powersun is off i have a heat lamp (red) thats on to keep it nice and toasty. its better to use a ceremic heater going to get mine this weekend ...

Click to expand...

I just squirt water in my enclosure as well. I think I should get a heat lamp as well. Thank you!

---

nickercrombie said:

I have a ceramic heat emitter to keep heat up in the enclosure, I also have coco coir as a substrate with sphagnum moss scattered about that I spray in the morning and night. The moss and coir hold moisture very well, and help me keep the humidity at acceptable levels. Is your enclosure enclosed? Or is it open top?

Click to expand...

My enclosure is a cement mixing tub. So it's a large open top. My substrate is coco coir and repti bark. Does that make a difference?