Humidity

[tortlover73]

Here is our Cooper, the most adored tortoise ever. He just turned 2 years old. The first 1.5 years we had him in a glass tank with high humidity. After almost starting a house fire with the heat lamp, I got him 2 zoomed tortoise enclosures and linked them. I'm in the process of developing a tortoise area down in my ground level basement. My question is tho, he is 2 with no pyramiding at all. His shell is phenomenal. How long is it important to keep young sulcatas in high humidity? His diet right now is dandelion and other weeds along with some mazuri and any of the weeds he feasts on in my yard. But I live in Colorado where it is far from humid. I haven't been able to keep the humidity as high as it was in the tank... he has the fogger that goes off on one end of the enclosure in the hide box. We have moss that we mist a couple times a day. My 13 year old is worried he will
Pyramid now that his humidity isn't like we had it before. I am a veterinarian but not gonna fake it lol. I'm not exotics trained. Thanks

 

[wellington]

He does look great. Mostly recommended to be kept until at least 2 years in a closed chamber, except for some outside time. After that a humid hide is needed. I would try to get at least 80% in the humid hide. Gkad your building a new enclosure, he needs lots of room to roam to build muscle. Two Zoo meds must be getting small for him. Any added humidity you can add to his new enclosure won't hurt either.

 

[Tom]

Pyramiding is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry.

If your tortoise is growing, it needs humidity. There is no time frame for how long they need it.

This tortoise should have at least a 4x8' indoor enclosure, and it will likely outgrow that in another 6-12 months. Unless you keep it dry, like the way you are doing it now. That is not good for them, but it will slow the growth significantly.

 

[tortdad]

Wow, what a good looking tort!

If you want it to continue to grow like that you've got to find a way to keep humidity up in the new enclosure