Baby cherry head/ first time owner

[slowandeasy]

Okay so I have a baby cherry head tortoise just around 3 inches. I have a 100 watt basking light, uvb lighting and a 50 watt infra red light. This is all being used on a temporary 20 gallon long aquarium. I am using t rex forest bedding for the substrate used to be repti bark but didn't feel comfortable with it, seemed to have to many twigs sticking straight up.

I have two small aloe plants and some cat grass in the tank to trap humidity and currently using a repti fogger to help with humidity. Spraying by hand did not seem to work.

The Issue is this I have humidity stuck at 60 and wont rise if I run the fogger to long the the temps drop so low that my room gets cold. I have attempted misting by hand but the humidity level only got up to 50 if lucky. So how many times should I let the repti fogger run for? I have a timer that works in half hour increments. I also wrapped half of screen lid with aluminum foil to trap the heat and humidity in. I dont know what to do, I feel like I'm failing and causing great amount of stress on this poor baby. I'm consistently worrying about every little thing. I want it to grow happy, healthy and beautiful.

I cant rest till my little baby is happy and safe! Maybe I am in over my head and should take the loses and give it to an experienced tortoise lover. Please help this is breaking my heart. It relies on me and if I fail it suffers and I cant have that.

Please any advise would greatly be appreciated. Thank you ahead of time, for taking time out of your day to respond to respond to this failing care taker

 

[Madkins007]

Dang! I apologize- I tried to merge 2 identical threads, and seem to have erased the answers. I am very sorry for this.

The answer I had posted earlier goes like this.

1. That is a lot of light/heat from above. 100 watts is more than I use in my entire bedroom. Tortoises are generally shy animals and often prefer less intense light.

2. Covering the tank 1/2 way is not going to help prevent evaporative losses much. Try making a foil tent over the entire top, including lighting systems, and loosely securing it so it is easy to get into and there is still some fresh air flow. You should see a significant improvement.

3. Try pouring warm water into the substrate, filling it about 1/2 way. If it is 2" thick, pour about 1" of water. This works even better if you heat the water with an in-soil or under-tank heater.

4. I am not a fan of in-tank misters because of their affect on temperature, but there are other humidity machines you can find or make easily enough.

The Library, linked below, has a lot of articles and links that may help.