humidity ideas

[ekmeeks]

Anyone got any ideas on how to keep my humidity up in an open indoor pen. Thought I had it high enough. But not fort the leopards. My Russian does great have had her for fifteen years. I was thinking Humidifier in cave on other side of hot red light but don't know if that would be to damp. Pen is 6x8 with about four hundred pounds of dirt, live plants and Bermuda grass. The top pen is the Russian tort

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I'll give you the same idea I've used in the past. Get an aquarium air pump with some air tubing and an air stone. You can get it all for $10. Place the air stone in a tall container of water. Tall so that your tortoise can't fall into it. This adds all kinds of humidity to a closed chamber set up and cant hurt in an open topped, especially if you can partially cover the area that has this "bubbler" system.

 

[Tom]

You'd have to humidify the whole room. And I wouldn't use a red bulb. White light for day and dark at night is best. Ceramic heating elements make heat with no light and will screw into the same fixture as your red bulb.

How big is your leopard? If it a full size adult, humidity is really not a big factor anymore.

 

[Yvonne G]

Well, for one thing you don't have nearly enough substrate in there. You need at least 3" and then pour a pitcher full of water over it, maybe more, and stir it up with you hand to wet all the particles. Then bury some potted plants down into the substrate. Watering the plants to keep them alive, plus aspiration and evaporation helps with humid air. Covering or partially covering also keeps the warm, moist air inside.

 

[Yvonne G]

...oh, wait - you say you have 400lbs of dirt in there. Sorry, I was thinking the black stuff under the cypress mulch was plastic tarp. So the cover looks like the answer for you.

 

[ekmeeks]

Well, for one thing you don't have nearly enough substrate in there. You need at least 3" and then pour a pitcher full of water over it, maybe more, and stir it up with you hand to wet all the particles. Then bury some potted plants down into the substrate. Watering the plants to keep them alive, plus aspiration and evaporation helps with humid air. Covering or partially covering also keeps the warm, moist air inside.

My substrate is four to six inches deep, I made areas deeper than others.

 

[ekmeeks]

The cave is covers after reading post today I ordered a Humidifier the one you can change warm to cool. I did not think of the ceramic element I will get one of those for sure.

 

[ekmeeks]

Also the black you see around water is slate to keep so much dirt from getting in water. Plus I feed them on slate to help trim beak

 

[ben awes]

So this is what I do, and it's not perfect, and I tend to make "effort on my part" a key deciding factor. The more of a hassle it is for me the less likely I will be consistent doing it.

I have an open indoor enclosure up here in Minnesota where it is as dry as the desert in the winter. To me more space for the torts is more important than high humidity all the time. I've got about 80sf of enclosure with a plywood floor. I tried dirt substrate and my hole house gets covered in a micro film of dirt in no time. Plywood has worked for me for 12 years.

In one corner I have a humid hide (plywood box with with homemade freezer flaps and a clear acrylic top so I can look in). They spend at least 18 of 24 hours in there each day. The floor in there is a thick layer of cypress mulch.

I have a humidifier right inside the hide. I actually have two but only use one at a time. They are kind of a pain to clean well so I trade them out every few months. Very important to clean the scale off every one in a while because they loose efficiency to produce humidity fast when the scale builds up. I tried a number of different brands and landed on this one because it can be filled from the top without taking the top off (surprisingly important feature). Also it's a cool mist one, not hot. And it kicks out quite a bit of humidity.

I fill it once a day with a hose. It keeps the humidity at about 60%, which is not great, but it's far better than 15% in the ambient air! I'm sure it could be improved with better seals, but there it is.

 

[ekmeeks]

that is what I decide to do with the humidifier. my humidity is at about thirty % so I got a warm mist humd. and changing the red light to the ceramic heater. but the more I read the more I get confused, I found a dozen sites to include this one that says area high humd. and that many more that say its bad and will make them sick. my leopards are four years old and about six pounds I don't know how long. they are starting to pyramid some, vet said for south Carolina not bas' I feed mostly grown grass and collard greens' with cactus and dry hay. they got plenty cal. and sun. vet said not enough moister but didn't really say what was to much.

 

[ekmeeks]

So this is what I do, and it's not perfect, and I tend to make "effort on my part" a key deciding factor. The more of a hassle it is for me the less likely I will be consistent doing it.

I have an open indoor enclosure up here in Minnesota where it is as dry as the desert in the winter. To me more space for the torts is more important than high humidity all the time. I've got about 80sf of enclosure with a plywood floor. I tried dirt substrate and my hole house gets covered in a micro film of dirt in no time. Plywood has worked for me for 12 years.

In one corner I have a humid hide (plywood box with with homemade freezer flaps and a clear acrylic top so I can look in). They spend at least 18 of 24 hours in there each day. The floor in there is a thick layer of cypress mulch.

I have a humidifier right inside the hide. I actually have two but only use one at a time. They are kind of a pain to clean well so I trade them out every few months. Very important to clean the scale off every one in a while because they loose efficiency to produce humidity fast when the scale builds up. I tried a number of different brands and landed on this one because it can be filled from the top without taking the top off (surprisingly important feature). Also it's a cool mist one, not hot. And it kicks out quite a bit of humidity.

I fill it once a day with a hose. It keeps the humidity at about 60%, which is not great, but it's far better than 15% in the ambient air! I'm sure it could be improved with better seals, but there it is.
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I posted below before I saw where I could reply. still learning site. beautiful tort too