Humidity in the Wild

[Tom]

Hi Tom, I left a message somwhere on here about Mya's new humidifier. I know, I get lost on here sometimes! We ordered her a Lizard humidifier, the regular one on the table in her nursery wasn't working that great. It was about 75 in her enclosure. This came with a tube, which you hang down into her enclosure. It is a soft humid mist. I hope this isn't harmful, or to much, I don't know, it's the best idea I've had for high humidity for her for now. We will get her the enclosure you have for yours, just unable to at this time. I've tried dowloading the video, I'm not having any luck! I will do that as soon as this issue resolves. I just hope it's ok for the fog going into her enclosure, without giving her a resp infection. It's been here all day on Saturday. She seems to like it.

I don't care for humidifiers personally. I think it fails to address the problem. If you stop your warm humid air from escaping, you don't have to shoot damp air into your enclosure. If you are losing that much humidity, you are also losing that much heat. If you are losing that much heat, you are having to burn more electricity to replace it, and this causes more desiccation and dryness, which requires more humid air to be shot in to replace it. It like chasing your tail. Contain your heat and moisture, and you won't have either problem.

 

[Tom]

I think this is good evidence against microclimates for Hatchlings too. If 99.9% of the time they are found in the same humid locations in the wild, why create the microclimates they avoid? It makes more sense to create their whole enclosure like the microclimate they seek out.

Man... I have had that argument soooooo many times.

Two main issues:
1. What do they experience in the wild? This is debated all day long, and every person has their own "feelings" about it. Many quote weather data. I counter that tortoises aren't 2 meters above the ground away from vegetation and cover, which is where the weather sensors are. Then you have the issues of people and their interpretation and their imitations of what they believe these wild conditions to be. This is what lead to the dry "desert" enclosures for sulcatas and leopards 30 years ago that still persist to this day. All this speculation over wild conditions causes some arguers to ignore the mountains of evidence that live in our homes and yards daily. I have trouble wrapping my head around that sort of willful ignorance based on pride or winning an argument.
2. When people aren't sure which way to go with all this conflicting info, often their solution is to offer the tortoise a choice. As if the tortoise is going to rationally think this out. It forces the tortoise to choose between competing survival drives. Instinctually, they will choose what they perceive as the most secure location, instead of the location with the correct temps and humidity. What this tactic overlooks is that in the wild, most everywhere that gives them the security they are looking for, also gives them the correct growing conditions, in contrast to our man made indoor enclosures. This strategy also requires the person to ignore mountains of evidence demonstrating that giving tortoises the BEST conditions in their enclosures produces the BEST results.

 

[turtlesteve]

Man... I have had that argument soooooo many times.

Two main issues:
1. What do they experience in the wild? This is debated all day long, and every person has their own "feelings" about it. Many quote weather data. I counter that tortoises aren't 2 meters above the ground away from vegetation and cover, which is where the weather sensors are. Then you have the issues of people and their interpretation and their imitations of what they believe these wild conditions to be. This is what lead to the dry "desert" enclosures for sulcatas and leopards 30 years ago that still persist to this day. All this speculation over wild conditions causes some arguers to ignore the mountains of evidence that live in our homes and yards daily. I have trouble wrapping my head around that sort of willful ignorance based on pride or winning an argument.
2. When people aren't sure which way to go with all this conflicting info, often their solution is to offer the tortoise a choice. As if the tortoise is going to rationally think this out. It forces the tortoise to choose between competing survival drives. Instinctually, they will choose what they perceive as the most secure location, instead of the location with the correct temps and humidity. What this tactic overlooks is that in the wild, most everywhere that gives them the security they are looking for, also gives them the correct growing conditions, in contrast to our man made indoor enclosures. This strategy also requires the person to ignore mountains of evidence demonstrating that giving tortoises the BEST conditions in their enclosures produces the BEST results.

Well said. At this point we know enough to provide optimal conditions for hatchlings to grow and thrive. Most healthy tortoises can self-regulate, but when people give hatchlings a large temperature or humidity gradient it simply makes large parts of their enclosure uninhabitable most of the time.

 

[Myakoda]

I don't care for humidifiers personally. I think it fails to address the problem. If you stop your warm humid air from escaping, you don't have to shoot damp air into your enclosure. If you are losing that much humidity, you are also losing that much heat. If you are losing that much heat, you are having to burn more electricity to replace it, and this causes more desiccation and dryness, which requires more humid air to be shot in to replace it. It like chasing your tail. Contain your heat and moisture, and you won't have either problem.

We're sending this one back. The other one worked better in her room. Her humidity was about 80 in her enclosure, when we shut the door, 75 with the bedroom door open. So now it's 80 in her enclosure ambiant, her hide about 83. She's happy, basks, eats a lot, poops a lot, and she gets soaks everyday for at least 20 minutes. She poops in her water, and rareley goes in her hide. Good girl lol. When I sell my Dad's house. I'm going to buy her the largest humid enclosure like you have. But for now, we'll have to work with this. Running 2 homes is a lot. Soon, she'll have the other.