advice needed please

[Wezzer]

since i got my redfoot speckles, i have noticed that her eyes water. i put it down to her being kept too dry and have been soaking her on a regular basis. i keep humidity at 70. i have noticed that her eyes seem to clear up after i have soaked her. i have had her nearly 2 weeks now and her eyes are still the same. is there anything else i can do? any advice is greatly appreciated

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't keep redfoot tortoises, but everything I've read tells us that their eyes water when they're being kept too dry. Do you moisten the substrate?

 

[Wezzer]

Yes, I spray the substrate on a regular basis. I can get the humidity between 70 and 80. The pet shop was keeping her on a really dry substrate, she didn't have any water and he was spraying her once a day. She is pooing but I haven't seen her wee yet, and i was wondering how long it would take her to get over the bad conditions she was being kept in. Her eyes seem to be worse when she first wakes up.

 

[Yvonne G]

That tells me that maybe her hiding place isn't moist enough. Do you have her in moist sphagnum moss? Could she maybe be too hot?

 

[terryo]

When inside for the Winter, I put lots of moss in the hide. I wet it with hot water, and then squeeze it out and fluff it up. Mine have to dig their way into the hide. I also put lots of plants in the vivarium, so it's always humid, even hours after I spray the plants. When they come out to eat, I spray them too. I try to keep the top layer of substrate dry to avoid shell fungus.

 

[Wezzer]

That tells me that maybe her hiding place isn't moist enough. Do you have her in moist sphagnum moss? Could she maybe be too hot?

Yes, i'm using sphagnum moss in her hide, but she doesn't always settle down in there. For the first week or so she would go in every night, but this past week she has taken to settling down in different areas.

 

[Madkins007]

The other question is temps. Relative humidity works such that, in a given space, the lower the temps, the higher the relative humidity. If it is a bit cool, your RELATIVE humidity reading is nice and high, but the actual amount of water in the air is rather low. 70% humidity is an OK lower target range for temps around 85f.

There are a lot of ways to boost humidity, depending partly on how desperate you are. My 'Tortarium' is a 48"x20" habitat that is usually humid enough to leave thick layers of condensation everywhere with temps ranging from just under 80 to a bit over 90. The main driving force between the temps and humidity is some waterproof heating rope (http://www.bigappleherp.com/Big-Apple-Flexible-Heat-Ropes) at the bottom of the habitat, wire-tied to a piece of hardware mesh to keep it exactly where I want it, per directions.

The way this stuff works is that you keep the lower levels of the substrate wet (I use cypress mulch) and the heated cable warms the water to both spread the heat more evenly, and to generate humidity from the bottom upwards. It takes about 50 ounces of water a day to keep the 960 square inches or so moist. Compare that to how much water you are adding with the mist, etc.

These cables have another advantage over traditional undertank heaters- most under-habitat warmers do not really warm things much, so they tend to run hot. The problem is that the soil itself is insulating the heater from the animals. With a damp-soil method, the water is heated and heats the soils much more evenly.

 

[Wezzer]

Thanks for the help everyone. I'm going to buy myself some coconut coir and see if that helps.

 

[Madkins007]

Personally, I don't like coir although I know a lot of people do. I got a lot of springtails in mine and it always seemed wet and clammy.

What is your setup like? Maybe we can help with some ideas? Photos if possible would be helpful.