humid hide temp

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samsmom

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Approx size of indoor enclosure-L-D-H 50X20x25, humid hide-L-D-H 10x20x11. During the day the hide temp stays mostly in the mid 70's with 75-85% humidity. The other end of enclosure stays at least mid 80's with basking around 110. Night time temp drops to the low 70's in the hide. Is this warm enough? I just added a night time heat lamp to the warm end of enclosure but it does not seem to help much in the hide. There is a hinged lid on the humid hide that gets raised several times a day. Could this be letting out too much heat?

Also several nights Samson falls asleep on his basking rocks and I have to move him into his hide box. I'm pretty sure he stays in there for the remainder of the night. This makes me think that his hide box is too cold for him?

Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks!
 

Tom

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No. It should be 80 at the minimum.

Your basking spot does not need to be that high and your night temps are too low. If you continue at this rate, respiratory infection is likely. A basking bulb on a timer, a CHE on a thermostat, and covering as much of the top of the enclosure as you can should help remedy all of these problems.
 

samsmom

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Tom-I have the basking bulb and the night bulb on timers. The night bulb comes on an hour after and goes off an hour before the day time basking bulb. Should I set the night bulb to come on as soon as the day bulb goes off and then vice versa? I can't figure out why heat is not getting into the hide box. My husband covered over 3/4 of the top of the enclosure with plexiglass and at night i cover the entire top with a sheet to help keep more heat inside (the hide box has it's own wooden lid). Could it be that there is just too much dead space? Right now the hide box is at 73 and the other end is at 89.
 

Dizisdalife

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You may need an additional heat source to keep the night time temp where it should be. I used a thermostat, like Tom suggested, to control the daytime ambient temp and the night time temps in an enclosure very similar to the one you have described. Here is a link to give you an idea of the thermostat. Be sure that the one you get can plug in more than one heat source.

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...ers/-/zilla-1000-watt-temperature-controller/
 

samsmom

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There is constant heat during the day and night. The rest of my enclosure is warm, only the hide box is not getting warm enough. I don't understand how a thermostat would help that?


Maybe these will help. For some reason the heat is not getting into the hide box.
 

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Dizisdalife

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That is a very nice enclosure. Sorry if I misunderstood the problem. I can't explain why the heat is lower in the hide than in the rest of the enclosure. When my tortoise was housed in an enclosure that size (he is housed outdoors now) I needed two CHE's (60 watt) controlled by a thermostat to keep the night time temps, including the hide area, in the 80F to 85F range. It had a plexiglass top like yours to hold in the temp. My house temperature varies quite a bit during the winter months and will get down to 60F on ocassion.

Maybe the higher humidity level in the hide lowers the temp?
 

samsmom

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I think I fixed the problem! I removed the wall of the hide box. It is warming up already. For now there is not a box just a dark, humid area under the shelf. If this works then I will get a plastic box and cut a hole in it and put it under the shelf. Thank you all for your time and suggestions! Samson is sooo warm and happy and I'm sooo relieved!
 
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