Can humidity be too high for redfoot? [w/ Pics]

[TOBA]

We just got our ~1 year old redfoot and after a few days of adjustments have made the enclosure as shown. The lamps I use are the 13W reptisun 5.0 which I keep on for 12 hours and a 50W night heat lamp (Exo Terra, blue) which I keep on intermittently throughout the day & night.

There is a temp gradient about 81 - 89F in the enclosure (understand it's not necessary to have gradient but how do you keep same temp throughout with heating lamp? Can't use heating pads with plastic enclosure.).

Humidity ranges from 80 - 95%+ depending on if the heating lamp is on. For substrate, there's a 5" 50/50 potting soil / coconut coir mix bottom, topped with 1" of cypress mulch. My main question is if humidity can ever be too high for her? Sometimes when the lamp is not on, the humidity rise to 95%+ and it seems to avg ~90% overall (attached chart).

This is day 4 and she seems pretty comfortable and active. I plan on feeding her 6 days a week and so far she has great appetite. I am seeing a tiny bit of pyramiding when we got her so want to make sure she gets the right environment going forward in our care. Welcome any feedback on our setup!

 

[Toddrickfl1]

You can let the humidity go up to 100% and it won't hurt anything. What I would recommend is ditch those lights, both the blue night light, and the coil uvb bulb. Those coil uvb lights can cause eye problems. I've personally had a problem with one

Coil bulbs

Ok I haven't shared this story on the forum yet because I felt kind of stupid when it happened, but after seeing so many posts about it I felt I should share. I read about the coil lights causing problems with torts and other reptiles before I got my tort. There was many conflicting opinions and...

tortoiseforum.org

You can replace it with a tube uvb light. Also use a Ceramic heat emitter set on a thermostat instead of the night light. You want to aim for 84F thru out the enclosure. No real need for a temperature gradient with young Redfoots.

 

[TortoiseWarrior]

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

www.tortoiseforum.org

 

[Toddrickfl1]

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

www.tortoiseforum.org

Op has a Redfoot. Different care for them. Also Happy Birthday!

 

[wellington]

A RF is prone to shell rot. The humidity can be high but substrate must be dry on the top layer. Wetting the substrate from the bottom, by putting the warm water in the corners to wet the underneath is the way to help keep top dry.
That said there is no way of keeping proper humidity in an open top enclosure.
I second ditching the night blue light and the coil bulb.

 

[TOBA]

Thank you for the helpful information! Curious what's the benefit of a ceramic heat emitter over the night heating light? I plan on hooking up a thermostat to either.

You can let the humidity go up to 100% and it won't hurt anything. What I would recommend is ditch those lights, both the blue night light, and the coil uvb bulb. Those coil uvb lights can cause eye problems. I've personally had a problem with one

Coil bulbs

Ok I haven't shared this story on the forum yet because I felt kind of stupid when it happened, but after seeing so many posts about it I felt I should share. I read about the coil lights causing problems with torts and other reptiles before I got my tort. There was many conflicting opinions and...

tortoiseforum.org

You can replace it with a tube uvb light. Also use a Ceramic heat emitter set on a thermostat instead of the night light. You want to aim for 84F thru out the enclosure. No real need for a temperature gradient with young Redfoots.

 

[Toddrickfl1]

Thank you for the helpful information! Curious what's the benefit of a ceramic heat emitter over the night heating light? I plan on hooking up a thermostat to either.

A ceramic heat emitter doesn't emit light. The blue or red lights are generally not recommended. Also if you hook a thermostat up to the light it will kick off when it reaches the desired temp and back on when it gets low, so your light will be coming on and off all night.

 

[TortoiseWarrior]

Op has a Redfoot. Different care for them. Also Happy Birthday!

Thank you and thank you