Mediteranean tortoise table humidity?

[qweny]

Hi guys,

I am wondering what you keep your humidity at for your mediterranean tortoises? I have two hermanns that live in a natural humidity of 40%-60% in the day, but at night in their hide it can reach 90%!!! They still stay in their hide, is a high humidity bad for respiration? I heard it can be good for shell growth?

Thanks for any advice and help

Ps. The torts are almost 3 years old so they are still growing[/b]

 

[Tortoise Hub]

Respiratory issues are usually because its kept too damp and cold. What temps are you having throughout your enclosure through the night and day? Are those your humidity readings for your tort table?

 

[qweny]

It's quite warm here at the moment so it reaches 35 degrees under my lamp in the day and drops to 24 degrees at the other side of the table and it is about 23 degrees at night. The humidity readings were taken by a humidity meter in my tortoise table. The reading of 90% was taken from inside their hide in the middle of the night.

Thanks Elliot

 

[Tortoise Hub]

The temps sound good. How big is your tort? I would assume somewhere in the 4-5 inch range? You dont need the humidity that high for a tortoise that big. I would try to lower your humid hide to around 70%.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

My Russians usually have an ambient humidity around 40% during the day, which can go up to 50-60% at night. Tortoises that burrow should experience an additional 20% or so increase in humidity as they dig down, because substrate (both in the wild and in captivity) should be moist.

 

[blafiriravt]

I found I can keep mine dialed in perfectly by placing some sphagnum moss inside the hide. I make my hides by placing nice flat slate rocks on top of the substrate (cypress and top soil), packing it tight and digging little tunnels underneath. The top soil makes a nice sturdy base for the slate, and I place a little clump of sphagnum inside that I keep moist she can burrow in. I have a warm side that has a zoomed powersun 100w for basking, and a CHE over one hide. This keeps my temps dialed in right around 83f with a basking of 95f and a general humidity of 65% in the hides. It is of course more dry around the enclosure under the basking bulb and such, around 35-50% depending on where I take my measures. She of course gets soaks daily for hydration. I can post some pics of the set up if that helps too

 

[qweny]

thanks for the advice guys,
elliot: my tortoises are around 10-12cm so about 4-5 inches

 

[GBtortoises]

Hi guys,

I am wondering what you keep your humidity at for your mediterranean tortoises? I have two hermanns that live in a natural humidity of 40%-60% in the day, but at night in their hide it can reach 90%!!! They still stay in their hide, is a high humidity bad for respiration? I heard it can be good for shell growth?

Thanks for any advice and help

Ps. The torts are almost 3 years old so they are still growing[/b]

Not all tortoises that are lumped under "Mediterranean" are truly found in Mediterranean climates. Russians and Middle Eastern Greeks are prime examples of this.
Hermann's (all subspecies) are considered to be truly Mediterranean tortoises. But even those found in the northern most extent of their range are not truly in a Mediterranean climate. Assuming that your Hermann's are either Easterns or Dalmatians, they do best with humidity levels in the 50-70% range. If you're getting 90% at night when the temperature drops than the enclosure is probably too damp. Temperatures too low (below 55 degrees) with very high humidity can be a problem.