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pguinpro
Guest
To be quite frank the misting is not really helping and my toes doesnt like me spraying/misting all the time; he hates it. So I was thinking a fogger or humidifier. Any suggestions?
Via Infinito
Active Member
Lol I was so tempted to use this two fish sculpture thing in the enclosure, with a glass ball in the middle, then the two fish would shoot out water, and had mists oozing out.
Like this LOL
Like this LOL
Its easier to keep humidity by just pouring water straight into the substrate and mixing it up, rather than misting.
I bought a fogger the other day. I have it blow under the enclosed, humid side of my red foot's
table. It feels like the humidity was improved...
I kind of just got it as a present for Artemis and if it doesn't show promise, ill probably toss it.
table. It feels like the humidity was improved...
I kind of just got it as a present for Artemis and if it doesn't show promise, ill probably toss it.
What species and size tortoise are we talking about? How is it housed?
I am generally against using misters or humidifiers because they don't address the problem of: Why is your enclosure too dry?. Stop the humidity and warmth from leaving and you will have a better, more stable environment for raising a baby tortoise and you won't need a humidifier.
I don't have the need of a humidifier either. I have an enclosed habitat with wet substrate and there's condensation on the glass all the time.
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pguinpro
Guest
Sulcata; The top is covered but still have low humidity and the tort hates the wet substrate/misting. Only goes over for food and wont drink water. I wet his food so he gets some water. . .
What makes you think he hates it? Because he absolutely NEEDS to have a water bowl, damp substrate, and humid enclosure to not pyramid or get sick. You need to be pouring water in the substrate and mixing it in and misting daily.
If you do all of this, you don’t need a humidifier
Please read these for the correct info on how to house them and care for them correctly:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/
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pguinpro
Guest
I've read that before and it doesnt cover this issue , nice try though.
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pguinpro
Guest
Well for starters he's never over there on that side and only in the hide or basking. Anyways I have humidity loss because only 8/10 is covered with aluminum foil and tape the other 2/10 has heat/up above it. I mix the substrate l, most, and soak certain areas and am only acheiving 86% for about 2 hours hence why I was thinking a fogger or humidifier might be beneficial or even a spray/mist system.What makes you think he hates it? Because he absolutely NEEDS to have a water bowl, damp substrate, and humid enclosure to not pyramid or get sick. You need to be pouring water in the substrate and mixing it in and misting daily.
If you do all of this, you don’t need a humidifier
Nice try? I give you the help you ask for and I get sarcasm in return?
From the care sheet I linked:
Indoor housing:
It must be noted that we now know sulcatas babies hatch during the start of the rainy season in Africa. It is hot, humid, rainy, and marshy in some areas. Yes the area is dry for 8-9 months out of the year, but it is a swamp during hatching season. During the dry season, sulcatas spend the vast majority of their time underground in warm, humid burrows. Keeping your hatchling in a dry, desert-like enclosure, is a big mistake and an invitation to disaster. It is also very un-natural for these animals. Imagine what would happen to an earthworm in a hot, dry enclosure with dry substrate. The same thing happens to the INSIDE of a baby tortoise. Your enclosure should be maintained such that an earthworm could live in it just as well as a hatchling tortoise. A damp substrate, a water bowl, and a humid hide should all be pre-requisites. Along with this, warm temps day and night are necessary. Sulcatas and leopards are NOT prone to shell rot at all, and they do not get respiratory infections in these damp conditions as long as temps are kept up. I shoot for no lower than 80 degrees day or night year round. Adults can tolerate colder temps in some circumstances, but this care sheet is for hatchlings and babies and is aimed at helping them thrive, not just survive.
The Actual Enclosure:
I have not been able to make any open topped enclosure work to my satisfaction. Low sided open topped enclosures like tortoise tables and sweater boxes are the worst. No amount of covering, or attempts to slow heat and humidity loss have worked well for me. There is just no way to keep the warm humid air where you want it. For about the last year and a half, I have only been using closed chambers for any tropical species of tortoise, and I couldn't be happier with them. Temperate species of tortoises that require drier conditions or a bigger night time temperature drop might fare better in the typical tortoise table set up. I will leave that for someone more experienced with those species to tell you in THEIR care sheet. Maintaining whatever temperature and humidity you want is easy and efficient in a closed chamber. They use a lot less electricity because all of your heat and humidity is trapped with nowhere to go. It also makes maintaining warm night temps a snap. Open tops allow all your warm humid air to escape up and into the room where your enclosure sits. Even if you cover most of the top, the heat lamps create a chimney effect and draw your heat and humidity up and out. Having the heat lamps outside, or on top of, the enclosure also lets the majority of the electricity you are using to produce heat float up up and away... A closed chamber can be made by covering the top of a tub or tank and minimizing ventilation, but its not easy and you burn more electricity. It works best if all the heating and lighting equipment is INSIDE the enclosure with the tortoise. Maintaining a small open topped box at 80 degrees with 80% humidity in a regular sized room that is 70 degrees and 20% humidity is VERY difficult, if not impossible in a practical sense. A closed chamber makes it easy.
Here is an older thread I did on closed chambers:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-32333.html
Humid Hide Boxes:
This offers the tortoise a more humid place to retreat to and sleep and can simulate some of the more damp micro-climates they might utilize in the wild. It is as simple as getting a $2 black dishwashing tub from Walmart, flipping it upside down and cutting out a small door hole. I keep the substrate under the tub more damp than the surrounding substrate and it works great. You can also use plastic shoe boxes. Some people like to put sphagnum moss in their hides or attach a sponge to the top. This is all fine, but I usually don't bother. This is a short paragraph, but this is a very important detail that should not be overlooked.
Substrate: I recommend coco coir, orchid bark, cypress mulch, plain additive free soil, or yard dirt if yours is suitable. All of these can be purchased in bulk at most hardware or garden center stores at a tremendous savings. I recommend against wood shavings or chips, ground walnut shell, corn cob bedding, rabbit pellets, compressed grass pellet bedding, newspaper pellets, hay, cedar, or any amount of sand.
The issue you asked about is specifically addressed. How to house the tortoise and maintain correct conditions is specifically addressed and explained. There is no mention of misters and humidifiers because if the care sheet is followed, they are not necessary or desirable.
From the care sheet I linked:
Indoor housing:
It must be noted that we now know sulcatas babies hatch during the start of the rainy season in Africa. It is hot, humid, rainy, and marshy in some areas. Yes the area is dry for 8-9 months out of the year, but it is a swamp during hatching season. During the dry season, sulcatas spend the vast majority of their time underground in warm, humid burrows. Keeping your hatchling in a dry, desert-like enclosure, is a big mistake and an invitation to disaster. It is also very un-natural for these animals. Imagine what would happen to an earthworm in a hot, dry enclosure with dry substrate. The same thing happens to the INSIDE of a baby tortoise. Your enclosure should be maintained such that an earthworm could live in it just as well as a hatchling tortoise. A damp substrate, a water bowl, and a humid hide should all be pre-requisites. Along with this, warm temps day and night are necessary. Sulcatas and leopards are NOT prone to shell rot at all, and they do not get respiratory infections in these damp conditions as long as temps are kept up. I shoot for no lower than 80 degrees day or night year round. Adults can tolerate colder temps in some circumstances, but this care sheet is for hatchlings and babies and is aimed at helping them thrive, not just survive.
The Actual Enclosure:
I have not been able to make any open topped enclosure work to my satisfaction. Low sided open topped enclosures like tortoise tables and sweater boxes are the worst. No amount of covering, or attempts to slow heat and humidity loss have worked well for me. There is just no way to keep the warm humid air where you want it. For about the last year and a half, I have only been using closed chambers for any tropical species of tortoise, and I couldn't be happier with them. Temperate species of tortoises that require drier conditions or a bigger night time temperature drop might fare better in the typical tortoise table set up. I will leave that for someone more experienced with those species to tell you in THEIR care sheet. Maintaining whatever temperature and humidity you want is easy and efficient in a closed chamber. They use a lot less electricity because all of your heat and humidity is trapped with nowhere to go. It also makes maintaining warm night temps a snap. Open tops allow all your warm humid air to escape up and into the room where your enclosure sits. Even if you cover most of the top, the heat lamps create a chimney effect and draw your heat and humidity up and out. Having the heat lamps outside, or on top of, the enclosure also lets the majority of the electricity you are using to produce heat float up up and away... A closed chamber can be made by covering the top of a tub or tank and minimizing ventilation, but its not easy and you burn more electricity. It works best if all the heating and lighting equipment is INSIDE the enclosure with the tortoise. Maintaining a small open topped box at 80 degrees with 80% humidity in a regular sized room that is 70 degrees and 20% humidity is VERY difficult, if not impossible in a practical sense. A closed chamber makes it easy.
Here is an older thread I did on closed chambers:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-32333.html
Humid Hide Boxes:
This offers the tortoise a more humid place to retreat to and sleep and can simulate some of the more damp micro-climates they might utilize in the wild. It is as simple as getting a $2 black dishwashing tub from Walmart, flipping it upside down and cutting out a small door hole. I keep the substrate under the tub more damp than the surrounding substrate and it works great. You can also use plastic shoe boxes. Some people like to put sphagnum moss in their hides or attach a sponge to the top. This is all fine, but I usually don't bother. This is a short paragraph, but this is a very important detail that should not be overlooked.
Substrate: I recommend coco coir, orchid bark, cypress mulch, plain additive free soil, or yard dirt if yours is suitable. All of these can be purchased in bulk at most hardware or garden center stores at a tremendous savings. I recommend against wood shavings or chips, ground walnut shell, corn cob bedding, rabbit pellets, compressed grass pellet bedding, newspaper pellets, hay, cedar, or any amount of sand.
The issue you asked about is specifically addressed. How to house the tortoise and maintain correct conditions is specifically addressed and explained. There is no mention of misters and humidifiers because if the care sheet is followed, they are not necessary or desirable.
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pguinpro
Guest
Also, this is a desert tortoise. Last time I checked the desert isn't wet...humid at times...
They are absolutely NOT a desert tortoise! They are born in the monsoon season of Africa, when it is very rainy, and extremely wet. Then, when it’s not rainy and wet, they spend all of their time in deep, HUMID burrows. Your tortoise absolutely NEEDS humidity.
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pguinpro
Guest
The African spurred tortoise (Centrochelyssulcata), also called the sulcata tortoise, is a species of tortoise, which inhabits the southern edge of the Sahara desert, in Africa.
.....and, The African spurred tortoise is native to the Sahara Desert and the Sahel, a transitional ecoregion of semiarid grasslands, savannas, and thorn shrublands found in the countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. In these arid regions, the tortoise excavates burrows in the ground to get to areas with higher moisture levels, and spends the hottest part of the day in these burrows. This is known as aestivation. Burrows may average 30 inches in depth; some dig tunnel systems extending 10 feet or more underground.
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pguinpro
Guest
I'm not saying he doesnt need humidity I'm saying he doesnt like the wet substrate so I was wondering if anyone has had success with higher humidity readings using a humidifier, fogger, or misters. If so I'd like to hear about it.
And that’s Wikipedia. What Wikipedia doesn’t tell you, is that they live on the edge of forests, and like I said, are born in MONSOON season, in deep, HUMID burrows. Here’s a picture of the GRASSLANDS they inhabit-
Actually, Wikipedia does say those things. I’m impressed.
Yes... i had our young Sully in a fully enclosed chamber, good lighting, a moist cypress / coir / peatmoss substrate too. I opted to also have a mister turn on automatically for a few hours during the day to dramatically increase the humidity levels. Worked very well and ensured good moisture levels in addition to morning soaks. Hope that helps..
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