outdoor night box low humidity

[marcy4hope]

we have our night box finished outdoors, but i'm struggling with low humidity in there. like 19-20%. i realize it's outdoors and my torts 3 years old, so i'm not concerned about getting high humidity, but that oil heater is really drying it out and the hay in the box is really brittle. it's cold enough she's spending most of the day in there and not going out much. i am soaking her a couple times a week, but wondering if there's something i should do to raise humidity and if so ... what?

 

[Len B]

If your tortoise poops in the box don't clean it out immediately, let it lay, it will not hurt the tortoise and holds moisture better than most things you could put in to help hold moisture. I believe it is normal for them to do this in the wild. I noticed a few years back that my oldest sulcata poops only in his house when the temps start dropping in the fall and then in spring he will start pooping outside again with the rising temps. This seems to hold true with my younger ones also.

 

[Tom]

Add some tubs of water. If possible put the tubs on a shelf and you won't lose any floor space. Sometimes I just set a 3/4 full 5 gallon bucket of water in there.

Scroll down to the last pictures here to see what I mean. http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/my-best-night-box-design-yet.66867/

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I've had great success using damp dirt or coco coir as my heated night box substrate.
I lined the bottom and a few inches up the walls with vinyl flooring to prevent mold and it works like a charm. This is my 2nd winter with it set up like this.
My RH averages 60% to 70%. It's great.

I'm on my phone so I can't link to the photos but you'll find some if you check my threads

 

[Dizisdalife]

In my night box there are 3 shallow dishes of water on a shelf. There is an oil filled radiated heater and a small fan. The temp is 83° and the RH is 83%. Outside right now (6am California time) the temp is 53° and the RH is 32%. There is no substrate in the box and I don't have any "mold" issues. Occasionally I pile hay in the box, but change it out weekly, or so. I just worry about moldy hay. I think that the fan in there circulates air over the dishes and picks up moisture. It also moves warm air so there is a more even distribution of heat throughout the box.

 

[marcy4hope]

thanks. i'll try some water on a shelf. i have one corner that we could add a shelf to and set some water on there and see if that helps. thanks.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Hope the water on a shelf works out for you. Just to offer other options here are the photos showing what I tried to explain..

Just to show you my temp/humidity readings. It will spike into the 90-80%RH the day I add water and slowly decline to 60-70% over a week or so. I don't add water again until it drops in the 50-60% or becomes dusty on top. (you can see the low was 62% but jumped to the high of 94% because I added water that day)
Also, you can see my substrate is deep enough for a 10" leopard to partially bury himself


I was worried that the damp substrate would cause mold from sitting directly on the plywood, so I lined the bottom with the vinyl..I already explained that but here is the photo to show you

 

[Dizisdalife]

Heather, I really liked the way that you did this. We talked about this about a year ago and I just never got around to retrofitting my box with tile flooring and a moist substrate. In either case I think that having a well sealed box is important to maintaining an elevated humidity level. I use a 115 vac computer case fan to circulate air and believe that this makes a huge difference. Before I put the fan in the RH was about 55-60%. Now it stays a steady 75-80%. Often higher.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Ya Joe, I've had this way since that talk a while back and I love it! I think the leopard does too. His burrowing in leads me to think that

I've thought about adding the fan like you have. Is it noisy? Have you shared the photos of how it looks? I don't remember if I ever saw how it was mounted.

 

[mike taylor]

Add a personal humidifier in the night box . I've got my humidifier set to come on every time the heater does. It holds 70% .

 

[marcy4hope]

i used coco coir in my enclosed chamber indoors on plywood. i never had my substrate mold. i used kennel seal on all the inside plywood in my box. recently cleaned it out good and while the plywood was damp from where my tort had spilled the water bowl, there was no wear to the plywood at all. the kennel seal works great.

 

[Dizisdalife]

Ya Joe, I've had this way since that talk a while back and I love it! I think the leopard does too. His burrowing in leads me to think that

I've thought about adding the fan like you have. Is it noisy? Have you shared the photos of how it looks? I don't remember if I ever saw how it was mounted.

Initially I used a low speed fan that was quiet. Recently I was given a larger, high speed fan that is, in my opinion, noisy. The reason I changed them is that I wanted to move more air, better circulation, more evenly distributed heat. The low speed fan is rated at 28 decibels and moves 23 cubic feet per minute. The larger fan is rated at 43 dBA and moves 110 cfm. There is a speed controller (like a dimmer) available to slow the fan down, but is still too noisy for me. Not sure my sulcata cares either way. The fans cost about $15, plus $10 for the speed controller, and of course there is shipping.

Don't know that I have posted any pictures of the fan mounting. They are thin, 38mm, and easy to mount. Mine is positioned behind the oil filled radiated heater used to heat the box. My box is 4'x6'x2'high.

 

[Tom]

Joe helped me get a couple of the computer fans with the speed controllers. I use them in my larger 4x8' boxes. The speed controller is a must. I use mine at a pretty low speed and the fans make a noticeable difference in heat distribution and humidity maintenance.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Joe, is it noisy only when you open the box lid? Or can you hear the fan buzzing outside the box, say if you were sitting near it on a porch?
Then again as I see your box sizes (4x6 and 4x8) I wonder if my little 4x2 would even need it.
Hmm...

 

[Tom]

I can only hear mine when the top is open.

 

[Dizisdalife]

Joe, is it noisy only when you open the box lid? Or can you hear the fan buzzing outside the box, say if you were sitting near it on a porch?
Then again as I see your box sizes (4x6 and 4x8) I wonder if my little 4x2 would even need it.
Hmm...

I can hear it just outside the door of the box. If the speed were turned down a little you would have to be inside the box to hear it. The low speed fan that I originally had was even quieter than this. I just felt it was a bit under sized for the large size box. If you want to look into one they can be purchased at: http://www.acinfinity.com/115v-ac-axial-fans/

 

[Dizisdalife]

I can only hear mine when the top is open.

Do you think that the sound bothers the tortoise?

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Do you think that the sound bothers the tortoise?

My guess is no.. for the record, I asked cuz I didn't want it to bother ME! Lol

 

[Tom]

Do you think that the sound bothers the tortoise?

I see no indication that it does.