Humidity help

[dnntau8]

Hey everyone!
I have a baby hermann, Sherman, and i feel like I've tried everything to keep the humidity up in his enclosure. The enclosure is partially closed, a little over half of it is open.
Substrate is a little over 2" thick. I was using coconut coir as substrate, but heard cypress mulch held in moisture better, so I started using it, poured water directly into the substrate and mixed up, it stayed around 68-72% for about a day (with me still spraying it at least twice).
I ran a humidifier in the room for 2 days straight, never got above 56% humidity.
I heard to put a wet sponge under the substrate but that never got it above around 62%. (I removed it because i was iffy on the safeness of doing that).
I spray the substrate and under the light 4-5 times a day which lets it stay around 70% for a couple hours at a time.
I have live plants in the enclosure that I spray daily.
I'm not sure what else I can do, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Blackdog1714]

Hey everyone!
I have a baby hermann, Sherman, and i feel like I've tried everything to keep the humidity up in his enclosure. The enclosure is partially closed, a little over half of it is open.
Substrate is a little over 2" thick. I was using coconut coir as substrate, but heard cypress mulch held in moisture better, so I started using it, poured water directly into the substrate and mixed up, it stayed around 68-72% for about a day (with me still spraying it at least twice).
I ran a humidifier in the room for 2 days straight, never got above 56% humidity.
I heard to put a wet sponge under the substrate but that never got it above around 62%.
I have live plants in the enclosure that I spray daily.
I'm not sure what else I can do, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Closed Chamber is the best for babies. It maximizes the heat/humidity the best and easiest. With any part of the top open you lose heat and humidity way to quickly. Check out this guide it works for a wide range of tort babies.
https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threa...ise-any-temperate-species-of-tortoise.183131/

 

[dnntau8]

Closed Chamber is the best for babies. It maximizes the heat/humidity the best and easiest. With any part of the top open you lose heat and humidity way to quickly. Check out this guide it works for a wide range of tort babies.
https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threa...ise-any-temperate-species-of-tortoise.183131/

Thanks! Would covering the open part with plexiglass mess with the lighting/heat? The enclosure isn't deep enough to put the lamps down in it. Or would I be better off looking for/building a different enclosure that's closed, but the lamps fit down in?

 

[Blackdog1714]

Thanks! Would covering the open part with plexiglass mess with the lighting/heat? The enclosure isn't deep enough to put the lamps down in it. Or would I be better off looking for/building a different enclosure that's closed, but the lamps fit down in?

add a photo please

 

[Tom]

Thanks! Would covering the open part with plexiglass mess with the lighting/heat? The enclosure isn't deep enough to put the lamps down in it. Or would I be better off looking for/building a different enclosure that's closed, but the lamps fit down in?

There is not a way to make your current enclosure work well. That's like trying to heat or humidity your house with no ceiling or roof on it. It doesn't work, as you are seeing. You need a closed chamber and 3-4 inches of substrate. The heat and lights need to be inside the chamber.

A substrate that "holds moisture better" will not help, and cypress isn't any better than orchid bark or coir. All three hold water just fine. Its the evaporation that create humidity, and with an open top and lights outside, you can't contain the humidity.

More here:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org