15 years ago the babies weren't bombarded with humidity. I bet they would've died if they had and you kept lower temp. sand is usually involved when impactions have occured...you got lucky? This forum is here to inform/nitpick to stop stoppable freak accidents like Tipping hazards such as ramps or steep water bowls, or 'bad' soil that may be ingested causing poisoning and impaction. Just because it's used in past with no problems doesn't mean it will always be so. Do you really want to spend so much time and money and affection on and animal that up and dies on you for something that is preventable? I've been using this forum strategies on my baby m.e.p.s with no issues. They've doubled in weight from 4.5 months when I got them til now 4 months later. I keep them at 90% humidity with a minumum of 75F(mine are meps which require milder temps). I soak them nightly in 85f water and feed them immediately after. They are voraciuos eaters. Temps in aftrica...did you take into account that wild tortoises burrow when it gets colder at night? I don't doubt that the daytime sun warms the soil deep enough that when they go under for the evening it's still warm in the am. They can't burrow in a box. I really feel that, alone, any one of the issues that have been brought up(low humidity, coil bulb, etc) wouldn't have resulted in a dead baby but maybe taking them all together was too much. These methods are working for us. You should devote yourself to trying it. You may find that it's really fun creating a closed chamber environement. I had a blast! Sorry for the loss of the babies. Good luck with the sick one. Enjoy your new ones.
Absolutely agree with you, Teresa. All of those items you mentioned are sub-optimal for a thriving Leopard tortoise.
In my case, I had 100% mortality and am trying to zero in on the cause.