Increasing humidity in a Hermanns enclosure

[Chelsea]

As the title suggests, I want to try and increase the humidity in my Hermanns enclosures (I have 2 females in one, and 1 male in another). I've had them for 6 weeks now, but they are 18 months and 3 years old and slightly pyramiding. I don't want to moisten their substrate as I'm using aspen and don't want to risk it getting mouldy at all. I've read lots about attatching sponges to the inside of hides to give the torts a humid spot. In both enclosures I have 2 wooden habba huts. If I were to use one of the two as a humid hide, might the wood rot? Or if I were to glue a sponge in place, would the glue provide a good enough barrier to prevent too much moisture soaking into the wood? Would I be better off just trying to get a resin or plastic or stone hide? Can I maybe just soak the hut itself?

Can anyone give me advice on how best to do this? Or even pictures

Any imput is much appreciated! Sorry for all the questions, I just want to make sure I get it right for my little ones!

 

[GBtortoises]

By adding ambient humidity with a dry substrate two things may happen, depending upon your enclosure design. If the enclosure is covered and you add ambient humidity, some of that moisture from the humidity in the air is going to settle and be absorbed into the substrate anyway. If the enclosure is open then you really aren't going to be adding much, if any ambient humidity to the enclosure since most of it is going to be removed with air transfer from the open enclosure into the room itself. Unless you increase the humidity within the entire room.
If you're trying to increase humidity moistening the substrate is a more effective means of doing so. Ideally the best situation is to have a semi-moist substrate and increased ambient air humidity for Mediterranean species such as the Hermann's.
Humid hide boxes are okay but they only force the tortoise to spend more time in them if the substrate and air outside of the hide box is too dry. They are good to use in conjunction with a moist substrate and increased ambient humidity. For Mediterranean species the humidity level required for normal activity is only about 55-70% at 70-85 degrees. Not that hard to achieve.
Any wood that is kept very moist, damp or wet without adequate air flow to the wood will eventually rot. Most likely it would take an extreme situation for that to happen indoors in a very warm enclosure. Most people use plastic containers with lids for humid hide boxes. A good friend of mine puts a sponge in a stocking, stretches it across the top of the container and snaps the lid down tight. It stays in place until he opens the lid to resaturate the sponge. I use Rubbermaid type containers of various sizes, cut a doorway in the side, paint the exterior black to block out light, put an inch or two of sphagnum moss in the bottom and keep it well saturated.

 

[Carina and Stu]

Hi guys,

I'm having the same problem. I currently use aspen but am finding that it may be too dry for Stu as there is not much humidity. I keep Stu in a rabbit cage so it is open to the air, therefore am thinking of using different substrate which I can keep moist for better humidity. I have heard that cypress mulch is good? Also someone told me about some kind of substrate that you buy in "brick" form which you soak in water and it expands. Not sure what it's called but perhaps you could go to your local reptile shop to see if something similar is stocked? I have more research to do on this yet (as you can probably tell!!) but when I find out something I'll let you know...

Some people also use a soil/sand mix which they keep wet. It didn't really work with Stu as he kept eating it but I would like to try him on it again sometime later, perhaps when his vit/mineral intake is up.

These are just a couple of ideas - sorry I can't really give any good, sound advice as I am still experimenting myself. Someone more advanced in this stuff - please feel free to comment on these ideas! Would like someone to put me right...

 

[terryo]

I don't know anything about Hermann Tortoises's, but how about some plants. I bury them right in there little pots, and just water the plants and mist them. It really brings up the humidity in my torts enclosure.

 

[Ozric]

Chelsea I think you will end up needing something with more height to it than a habba hut, so you would have enough space to put your sponge or whatever in the roof.

I agree with GB about plastic containers. These can work well - they don't rot for a start and are easy to clean too. You can cut a hole for a doorway. I find my tortoises like to go into a space which they fit in, but they don't like it so much if there is loads of space in there. They like to fit snug.

If you are addng water to the habitat it is more important not to let temperatures go down too low because wet and cold is a bad combination for Hermanns. If you do use a damp substrate and place a plastic container over it, you will get increased humidity in there.

I use a soil substrate and its easy to add water to it. Its amazing how quickly it dries out again, which shows how all that moisture is evaporating and being lost from the habitat.

 

[Chelsea]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I think I'll try the plastic container idea first, that seems the cheapest and quickest way of fixing this. I'll keep everyone posted