Humidity ??

[LRBailey]

I have been struggling to keep the humidity up in my new RF's enclosure.
I've read here that it is imperative that especially while young, one is 5 mos and the other is 7 mos, that I keep the humidity up so that the shells grow right.
It's winter here in MI, and so the air is very dry. I have a room humidifier that runs all day. I mist the enclosure very frequently when home and still can only seems to get it to stay around 50%. On days that I work 8 or more hours, I come home to find the humidity between 35%-45%...not high enough! How can I fix this? Any tricks?

 

[Madkins007]

There are a lot of tricks we can try. I'm over here in Omaha NE so feel much of your pain.

Try to get the background humidity up to 30-50%, as much for your comfort and that of your other pets. If the room and house are too dry, it will suck the humidity from your tank even faster.

The more you cover your habitat, the more warmth and moisture you can trap inside. If you go this route, remember that UVB light cannot go through most plastics. Also, the larger the air space you trap, the longer the air stays clean. We want some air exchange to keep the air fresh and prevent mildew, but the slower, the better.

Use a good substrate, like cypress mulch. It lets us pour water into it that it will release as humidity as it gets warm. If you add some sort of undertank or soil heating, it will help a lot. I like this stuff: http://www.bigappleherp.com/Big-Apple-Flexible-Heat-Ropes. If you add heat in the substrate, be sure to follow makers directions.

Water dish in a warm space, live plants, hanging a bag of absorbent material or a wet washcloth, etc. all helps as well. I have some other ideas in the Library- http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/lhh.html

 

[oscar]

[ote='LRBailey' pid='210873' dateline='1295914609']
I have been struggling to keep the humidity up in my new RF's enclosure.
I've read here that it is imperative that especially while young, one is 5 mos and the other is 7 mos, that I keep the humidity up so that the shells grow right.
It's winter here in MI, and so the air is very dry. I have a room humidifier that runs all day. I mist the enclosure very frequently when home and still can only seems to get it to stay around 50%. On days that I work 8 or more hours, I come home to find the humidity between 35%-45%...not high enough! How can I fix this? Any tricks?
[/quote]

have same issue her in IL, The only way that I have found is to cover most all of the top of enclosure, I also have cypress mulch on bottom and then us sphagnum moss on top of that, they seem to hold the moisture in better than anything else I have tried. Also I use zoo med under tank heater controlled by a reostat to keep inside bottom of tank aroud 80 degrees above under tank heater.

 

[LRBailey]

I'm using cypress mulch, but have only had the sphagnum moss in their hide. Would it be better to cover the entire enclosure with sphagnum over top the cypress? I did try placing a wet washcloth over half of the screen top and it seemed to help until today. I left for work with a wet washcloth on top, but came home to find it bone dry and the humidity back down to 38%. Meanwhile the heat was up to 90 degrees...highest it has been. I usually have the temp around 80-85 during the day, and goes down to mid 70's at night...except in the hide end where it stays warmer since their is a heat mat under the bottom at that end. I would love to add live plants but have not found any place I can buy them where they haven't been planted in fertilized soil.
The babies have been with me for a week now. The youngest seems more lively coming out and walking around, eating well etc. The older one is 7 mos old and is still pretty much sticking to the hide all day long. I have to bring him out and place him on front of the food to get him to eat at all, and the past 2 days he is not eating a whole lot. I have had both soak and they are still looking good. I just worry the one is not eating enough and wonder if the humidity being too low would play into that.

 

[LindaF]

Trying covering part of the top with plexiglas. It isn't pretty but I have my tort table covered with an odorless shower curtain liner. It has created a mini-greenhouse over my enclosure.

 

[LRBailey]

I covered the screen top with plastic wrap this morning, all but a couple corners so that air flow could still exist. The humidity stayed up around 80%, and Garfunkel ate better today. Right now he is munching on a mushroom.
I stopped in Home Depot to try and get plexiglass that would fit on the top, but they only sell the pre-cut sizes, not what I needed. Tomorrow I'll try Lowes.

 

[tortoises101]

You could invest in a warm air humidifier too. They're really convenient when it comes to bumping up the humidity in a tank. You could also use a moisture retaining substrate, like cypress mulch, leaf litter, or a mix of 70/30 topsoil and play sand. Just on a note, are you misting with hot water? Hot water sprayed on the tank walls (not directly on the tortoise) really helps with humidity.

And another alternative to plexiglass is cardboard with little holes poked into it.

 

[Tracy Gould]

Speckles Viv was small and we were having problems too no mater how much water we put in we could not get it above 50, then the 3 foot tank came we moved the sub from the small viv to the bigger put soil under the bark placed the water near the CHE and closed the glass doors completely and the reading shot up to 78 the only problem now is because the viv is bigger the CHE needs to be on all night before we put the mat on instead, this worried me as i was scared it would over heat in the night but we have put the CHE on a timer so it will cool every so often and Kez ordered a Thermostat so hopefully the problems solved. all the Viv will need is more plants.

 

[LRBailey]

I thank everyone for their input and ideas. I went to Lowes today and had them cut me a piece of plexiglass that I have laid on the screen top, that covers about 80% of the top, leaving some free space for air flow.This brought the humidity up to 78%, much better. I also added a layer of sphagnum moss over top the cypress mulch throughout the enclosure. Before I had only put the moss in the hide area. For light, I have been using a 100w Powersun UV by ZooMed during the day. I have it on a timer and it stays on from 6am-8pm. After 8pm, the day light turns off and a red heat bulb comes on which is over the hide area, which also has a heat mat under the floor. I soaked both, Simon and Garfunkel, for 10 minutes each today. After-wards they ate like little piggies! Was good to see.

 

[pdrobber]

that's good to hear. they look good.

 

[LindaF]

That is great! They look so cute!!!!! By the way, I love their names.