Humidity-Sulcata wet shell

[kjr153]

The humidity in the tank ranges any where from 80%-85%. The humidity causes the shell to be wet. Is this bad? Can this cause shell rot? BTW,We're working on the pyramiding

 

[Tom]

Nothing is impossible, but sulcatas almost never get shell rot. In the wild they hatch in the rainy season where it's hot, wet, humid, rainy and marshy. The only hatchlings that my friend from Senegal has ever seen were seen in a marsh. I have kept mine very wet for years on end and had no problem. I did this for three years with Daisy and she never experienced any issues at all. She is now growing smooth with little knobs in the middle of her scutes, and she's around 30 pounds now.

Further I asked the two very experienced tortoise vets at the 2011 TTPG conference if they had ever seen a single case of shell rot in a sulcata or leopard. These guys have seen thousands of tortoises and turtles. They each told me, "Yes. One." One had seen shell rot on a leopard in the area where a dog had attacked and injured it. Apparently the people who allowed the dog attack in the first place didn't bother to even clean the wound. When the wound got really bad and infected, they took it to this vet who treated the wound and accompanying shell rot. The second vet said he saw some mild shell rot on a sulcata who spent the winter unheated in a shed where a pipe had burst and created a giant poopy mud hole.

Part of my routine here is daily sunning sessions. While Daisy was wet all day and night, she DID go out for sunshine in our very dry air for 1-4 hours a day most days. Some people have suggested that these daily forays into our warm dry air is what prevented any problems. But she spent a week or two straight with no outside time during winter, and still had no issues. And while I spot clean daily, I don't usually change out my substrate often. I never changed her substrate until I moved her out of that enclosure after two or three years.

 

[kjr153]

Thanks Tom! I was hoping you would be one of the people to voice your opinion on my thread!