Humidity vs. Heat

[Heatherk]

I am new to owning a tortoise, I have a baby Ibera Greek. The problem is I cannot keep the humidity and temp correct at the same time. I finally got the temperature up to around 84°F ambient and I finally got a fogger because spraying was not working at all. However, the fogger drops the temperature to 73°F and as soon as the temperature rises back up the humidity it back at 30% on one end and 10% on the hot end. How Can I keep my tortoise both warm and moist?

 

[Tom]

I am new to owning a tortoise, I have a baby Ibera Greek. The problem is I cannot keep the humidity and temp correct at the same time. I finally got the temperature up to around 84°F ambient and I finally got a fogger because spraying was not working at all. However, the fogger drops the temperature to 73°F and as soon as the temperature rises back up the humidity it back at 30% on one end and 10% on the hot end. How Can I keep my tortoise both warm and moist?

Get rid of the fogger. Those shouldn't be used with tortoises.

If you are having trouble maintaining humidity it is because there is too much ventilation. Normally I would tell people to get a closed chamber. Looks like you already have one, so that tells me there is too much ventilation.

Spraying the substrate does very little. You need to dump water into the substrate. How much and how often varies tremendously. Some need lots of water every day. Others needs very little water and very infrequently.

You should remove the moss. Its an impaction hazard and they all eat it. It does nothing.

This might help:

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

 

[Heatherk]

Get rid of the fogger. Those shouldn't be used with tortoises.

If you are having trouble maintaining humidity it is because there is too much ventilation. Normally I would tell people to get a closed chamber. Looks like you already have one, so that tells me there is too much ventilation.

Spraying the substrate does very little. You need to dump water into the substrate. How much and how often varies tremendously. Some need lots of water every day. Others needs very little water and very infrequently.

You should remove the moss. Its an impaction hazard and they all eat it. It does nothing.

This might help:

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

I was actually just reading this right before I saw your response, I learned a few new things! I will definitely remove the moss and I'll try just pouring water on the substrate instead. I have a pvc piece to put over the screen on top to make less ventilation, I will use thay as well Thank you!

 

[TeamZissou]

How deep is the substrate? Shoot for at least 4" of substrate so that it absorbs water and can release it through evaporation. Otherwise your tort will be swimming.

What are you using for a humidity sensor? These are good:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013BKDO8/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

 

[Heatherk]

How deep is the substrate? Shoot for at least 4" of substrate so that it absorbs water and can release it through evaporation. Otherwise your tort will be swimming.

What are you using for a humidity sensor? These are good:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013BKDO8/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

Oh man, my substrate is no where near 4" I will definitely make it deeper! And I have two digital humidity/tempature sensors. One is by Thrive and the other by Zoomed. I will look into the one from your link from Amazon. Thank you!