I made a rock!

[AuroraShire]

I went to Walmart and bought myself a cheap little bin to use as a humid hide for my future tortoise. I saw a thread from awhile ago about putting a porous saucer on top of the enclosure and it releases water down into the hide. I’m not sure how much of a difference it will make, but I fitted a saucer into the top, just to see.

I asked @Markw84 about a good size opening for a Burmese star its first 2-3 years. I know I’ll be sizing up eventually. Everything but the blue tub plastic is coated in epoxy. All together, it cost about $30-40 to make.

What do you guys think? Do you think it will work well enough? I want it to look nice, but if it doesn’t work for the health of the tortoise, it’s a deal breaker.

 

[mojo_1]

My experience with thick walled hides in a closed chamber enclosure is that they didn't get very warm when using CHE's temperatures got better when i switched to radiant heat panels. So expect lower temperatures if you have an open enclosure

 

[AuroraShire]

My experience with thick walled hides in a closed chamber enclosure is that they didn't get very warm when using CHE's temperatures got better when i switched to radiant heat panels. So expect lower temperatures if you have an open enclosure

Our plan is to have a closed chamber with a RHP on top. We’ll also be putting a heat and humidity sensor inside, so we’ll know if it just isn’t working. We’ll be test running everything before we get the tortoise.

So sounds like it has a good chance of working with the enclosure we have planned?

 

[mojo_1]

Our plan is to have a closed chamber with a RHP on top. We’ll also be putting a heat and humidity sensor inside, so we’ll know if it just isn’t working. We’ll be test running everything before we get the tortoise.

So sounds like it has a good chance of working with the enclosure we have planned?

If that doesn't work I've had great luck with these fake rocks from Amazon i cut the entrance in them.

 

[wellington]

I don't know if the dish on top will give enough humidity if that's all you are counting on. I use those for water dishes and they really don't leach much water out of them.

 

[Tom]

I went to Walmart and bought myself a cheap little bin to use as a humid hide for my future tortoise. I saw a thread from awhile ago about putting a porous saucer on top of the enclosure and it releases water down into the hide. I’m not sure how much of a difference it will make, but I fitted a saucer into the top, just to see.

I asked @Markw84 about a good size opening for a Burmese star its first 2-3 years. I know I’ll be sizing up eventually. Everything but the blue tub plastic is coated in epoxy. All together, it cost about $30-40 to make.

What do you guys think? Do you think it will work well enough? I want it to look nice, but if it doesn’t work for the health of the tortoise, it’s a deal breaker.

My only caution would be to keep a close eye on the coating you used. Over time, the hard tortoise shell rubbing on it might make it start to come unstuck in some way or other. Tortoises will then eat it and that could be a problem. This is a common issue when foam or styrofoam is used for things like this with tortoises. Why a tortoise would want to eat styrofoam I couldn't tell you, but they do. I can see you didn't use styrofoam, but your tortoise may try to eat whatever you did use.

 

[Yvonne G]

I would have used a sponge instead of the clay saucer.

 

[AuroraShire]

I would have used a sponge instead of the clay saucer.

That would’ve been a good idea. I won’t solely rely on the saucer to give moisture. And as janky as it would be, I could epoxy a sponge to the bottom of the saucer to help add moisture I also thought I could put some sort of tortoise friendly trailing plant in the saucer just to add greenery and the tortoise could eat anything that trails long enough down to him. I figured the saucer wouldn’t do much, but I saw others use them and figured no harm to try it.

@Tom that’s a good warning. I’ll keep an eye on wear and tear. I’ve heard of tortoise’s penchant for eating inedible things, but I don’t think this would have been on my radar without you saying that. So thank you!

 

[Tom]

That would’ve been a good idea. I won’t solely rely on the saucer to give moisture. And as janky as it would be, I could epoxy a sponge to the bottom of the saucer to help add moisture I also thought I could put some sort of tortoise friendly trailing plant in the saucer just to add greenery and the tortoise could eat anything that trails long enough down to him. I figured the saucer wouldn’t do much, but I saw others use them and figured no harm to try it.

@Tom that’s a good warning. I’ll keep an eye on wear and tear. I’ve heard of tortoise’s penchant for eating inedible things, but I don’t think this would have been on my radar without you saying that. So thank you!

Just FYI, in a closed chamber, you won't need to worry about the humidity inside the humid hide. It will stay humid all on its own and fairly easily. The saucer or the sponge are both fine ideas and will certainly do no harm, but just lightly dampening the substrate inside the hide will do the same thing. Just trying to save you some work.

 

[Markw84]

Carrie: As @Tom notes, in a proper, closed chamber there will be no problem with humidity in the hide with the substrate damp. I like your hide, depending upon the makeup of the material you used to create the rock look. The saucer on top reminds me that I like to place a potted pothos plant on top of the hides. It creates a natural look as the vines grow down and cover the hide and gives the tortoise a natural feel for its hide. Plus gives a bit of food it will nibble on as it reaches the fronds that grow down. Additionally, the weight helps keep the hide from being moved by the tortoise.

 

[AuroraShire]

@Markw84 @Tom I didn’t realize that it wouldn’t be a big job in a closed chamber. Thank you guys! And if that’s the case, I think I’ll use the saucer to hold a nice plant like Mark said. I’m growing a lot of plants for the enclosure, so that will help integrate the hide into the whole enclosure.

And I made sure that anything on the hide that would come into contact with the tortoise or even the air would be sealed by food grade, non-toxic epoxy.