Is 99% humidity way too high?

kirst1995y

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Hi everyone , hope you and your pets are well during these crazy times.

For anyone who has read my post from last year , our Red foot is now in a viv thriving .

We changed our substrate earlier from peat type to reptile suitable orchid bark due to our naughty boy always making a mess!

Switched his temp down for the night (we in in England) but his humidity is higher than ever - 99%

Could this cause respiratory problems ? I have read on the general web that those kind of levels can cause mold .

I know he is meant to have 70-80% .

Also do I even have the hydrometre in the right place , it's in the warm end at just above shell height and fixed to the wooden rear wall.


Thanks for any help , stay well .
 

wellington

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If the temps are too low yes he could get sick. Also they are prone to shell rot so need to be sure he is not always on wet substrate. I would get the humidity down. Leopards and sulcata can live in swampy humidity and maybe a few others but RF I wouldbt keep that high.
 

kirst1995y

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The substrate isn't wet , it feels dusty. How would I lower the humidity. Temps are fine , they are what his specialist vet said .
 

Tom

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The substrate isn't wet , it feels dusty. How would I lower the humidity. Temps are fine , they are what his specialist vet said .
FIrst, vets usually know nothing about tortoise care at all, and they certainly don't know species specific temperature ranges. Since we don't know what your vet thinks is "fine", it would help to know the actual temperature when trying to answer your question.

It is normal for humidity to rise when the lights go off and the ambient temperature in the enclosure drops. Nearly all of my enclosures go to 99% at night when the temperature drops to 80. As long as you are in the low 80s F, you should not have a problem with high humidity on dry-ish substrate with a RF.

It helps to have a portable digital thermometer/hygrometer that you can move around the enclosure and check temperature and humidity all over. Its also nice to record the high and low of each. Something like this:
thermopro-outdoor-hygrometers-tp-50-c3_max.jpg
 

kirst1995y

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Thanks for the advice Tom , we use Celisius here Google tells me that the conversion of the temperatures the vet said are 77F at night and 89.6F during the day.
 

ZEROPILOT

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Thanks for the advice Tom , we use Celisius here Google tells me that the conversion of the temperatures the vet said are 77F at night and 89.6F during the day.
90F is at the upper range for a Redfoot kept indoors.
85 is what I would call perfect.
And at that temperature, near 100% humidity would be fine
 

Toddrickfl1

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If your temperature is in the mid 80s then 99% humidity is fine.
 

DJ Kirk

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My enclosure gets to 99% at night and drops to 85-90% during the day
Ambient at 80F with a few warmer spot in the 90-100F range during day - when main CHE's go off at night my ambient drops to 70-75F around the room temperature the enclosure is in with one small night bulb that rises one spot at night to 85F again just in case he wants the heat at night
So my RF can choose where he wants to be - sometimes in cooler end and after eating he hangs out in the warmer end

I have tried to replicate the temperature variances and humidity that he would experience in a Panamanian rain forest

Above all - DO NOT EVER use basking day spot bulbs or especially those mercury vapor bulbs - they will burn off any humidity and harm your tort badly - CHE's work best with humidity
 

ZEROPILOT

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Some vets are learning as they go when it comes to reptiles.
It'd be like going to a dentist for hemorrhoids.
But if you feel confident in that vet (and I'm not saying you shouldn't) let him or her do a baseline exam for later reference.
 

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