Mildew in enclosure

[darwintheredfoot]

Hi there.

My partner and I adopted a 6 year old redfoot (cherryhead?) last Saturday, so had him just over a week now. We named him Darwin:



Anyway, he's settling in well. We've overhauled his enclosure to up the humidity (from 50% to between 80-91%). Today I noticed some mildew along the back of his enclosure. I understand that redfoots like high humidity, so I'm worried about the mildew. Will cleaning it be enough, or do I have to do something else?

Glad to be joining this community. Thanks.

 

[tortadise]

Welcome!
Mildew is enabled to grow within high humidity realms. However the product of the enclosure will constantly mildew if the material used cannot handle the moisture. MDF(Particle Board), even wood that isn't sealed. So my question would be. What type of material is the enclosure made out of?

 

[darwintheredfoot]

Welcome!
Mildew is enabled to grow within high humidity realms. However the product of the enclosure will constantly mildew if the material used cannot handle the moisture. MDF(Particle Board), even wood that isn't sealed. So my question would be. What type of material is the enclosure made out of?

Thanks! The enclosure came with the tortoise. It's plywood. There is a vent in the back and glass at the front. We have a reptibark substrate. Some sphagnum moss.

 

[tortadise]

Is it just raw plywood? If it is. I would clean the enclosure out and seal it. For the time being you can house him in a rubbermaid tub until the enclosure is sealed, dry, and fume free. Or you can remove the bedding and place a pond liner, shower curtain, or even a tarp where the substrate is going to be. In essence your creating a "pan" to hold the substrate and the same time it holds the moisture and wetness of the substrate. Without being in direct contact with the wood, and will not mildew.

 

[darwintheredfoot]

Is it just raw plywood? If it is. I would clean the enclosure out and seal it. For the time being you can house him in a rubbermaid tub until the enclosure is sealed, dry, and fume free. Or you can remove the bedding and place a pond liner, shower curtain, or even a tarp where the substrate is going to be. In essence your creating a "pan" to hold the substrate and the same time it holds the moisture and wetness of the substrate. Without being in direct contact with the wood, and will not mildew.

It appears to be raw plywood. We already put a waterproof tarp down on the floor with the substrate on top. The mildew is about 2-4 inches above the substrate, on the back wall. We already gave it a good clean when he got here.

 

[tortadise]

Well sounds a bit too wet then. Is the substrate really wet or just moist? I would seal the enclosure with a wood sealer or set up a new one. Can you post a pic of it?

 

[wellington]

You may want to switch your substrate out for something that holds humidity better, without having to soak it so much. I'm not sure what kind of wood reptibark is, but when I tried using it, it molded. I switched to coconut coir, the best for holding humidity and won't mold. You can wet the bottom layer, while the top layer is dry, to prevent shell rot. I have also had sphagnum moss mold on me also. You could also use fertilizer and pesticide free dirt and some members like cypress mulch.

 

[darwintheredfoot]

Some pics of the enclosure:








Re switching the substrate. It's an idea. I've also not been specifically wetting the substrate, but I guess some of it might be a bit wetter than other parts.

 

[wellington]

A bigger enclosure is needed ASAP. The temp and heat gauges need to be placed at tortoise height and I would switch the hide that looks like cardboard for one that isn't, as cardboard will mold and mildew.

 

[darwintheredfoot]

A bigger enclosure is needed ASAP. The temp and heat gauges need to be placed at tortoise height and I would switch the hide that looks like cardboard for one that isn't, as cardboard will mold and mildew.

Advice received. The house was temporary. I'll move the thermometers. (Did I mention we've only had him a week?) Question. The enclosure doesn't seem too small to me. What size would you recommend? (Obviously this is secondary to the mildew.)

---

For the record, the enclosure is 48 inches long, by 24 wide and 24 deep. Darwin the tortoise is approximately 7 inches long.

 

[abclements]

At a minimum, the enclosure should be 8 shell lengths by 4 shell lengths. So your 7 inch tort should have a minimum of a 28" by 56" enclosure. But if youre going to go to the trouble of making a new enclosure, i would just make a full size one. With the assumption that he will grow to be 14 inches. Obviously you want to make it as large as you have space for but at a min i would plan for a 14" tort

 

[darwintheredfoot]

At a minimum, the enclosure should be 8 shell lengths by 4 shell lengths. So your 7 inch tort should have a minimum of a 28" by 56" enclosure. But if youre going to go to the trouble of making a new enclosure, i would just make a full size one. With the assumption that he will grow to be 14 inches. Obviously you want to make it as large as you have space for but at a min i would plan for a 14" tort

Thanks for the info. Like I say, this is secondary to the mildrew. All part of the learning curve. He has access to an outside pen btw.

 

[darwintheredfoot]

At a minimum, the enclosure should be 8 shell lengths by 4 shell lengths. So your 7 inch tort should have a minimum of a 28" by 56" enclosure. But if youre going to go to the trouble of making a new enclosure, i would just make a full size one. With the assumption that he will grow to be 14 inches. Obviously you want to make it as large as you have space for but at a min i would plan for a 14" tort

Thanks for the info. Like I say, this is secondary to the mildrew. All part of the learning curve. He has access to an outside pen btw.

Does anybody think that it would benefit the situation if I added an open tortoise table to the existing tank, so he can move from the more humid vivarium to an open air zone? It would give him more space and increase the airflow somewhat?

 

[darwintheredfoot]

At a minimum, the enclosure should be 8 shell lengths by 4 shell lengths. So your 7 inch tort should have a minimum of a 28" by 56" enclosure. But if youre going to go to the trouble of making a new enclosure, i would just make a full size one. With the assumption that he will grow to be 14 inches. Obviously you want to make it as large as you have space for but at a min i would plan for a 14" tort

Thanks for the info. Like I say, this is secondary to the mildrew. All part of the learning curve. He has access to an outside pen btw.

Does anybody think that it would benefit the situation if I added an open tortoise table to the existing tank, so he can move from the more humid vivarium to an open air zone? It would give him more space and increase the airflow somewhat?

The other option is to get another tank of a similar size and combine the two. I am not sure which is the best option...

 

[Plowmandust77]

Install a very small fan to circulate humidity. Works well in ky 8x3. The cool end doesn't sweat nearly as much.

 

[darwintheredfoot]

Install a very small fan to circulate humidity. Works well in ky 8x3. The cool end doesn't sweat nearly as much.

Going to do that just now. Good idea. Thanks.

 

[darwintheredfoot]

Update: I now have a second tank next to the first tank, one humid, the other drier. The humid tank has topsoil as the substrate. I've put the reptibark in the drier tank. He's been walking around both tanks all day (as well as a spell in the garden). I'm hoping that the air movement will prevent the mildew.

 

[theelectraco]

The addition looks great, did you build that yourself? What's your humidity at in the first tank ? Appears to be dry but hard to tell on pics.

 

[darwintheredfoot]

The addition looks great, did you build that yourself? What's your humidity at in the first tank ? Appears to be dry but hard to tell on pics.

Thanks! The new tank was from ebay. I cut the hole in both tanks myself! Wasn't too difficult and now Darwin's got a lot more room to stomp around. As for humidity, seems to be about 75-80 in the topsoil (humid) tank. It'll be drier in the other tank. Haven't set up the thermostasts etc properly yet. I'm still hoovering up sawdust etc.

 

[darwintheredfoot]

Well it's been nearly 6 months since we got Darwin. And we've been trying to get his housing perfected. Our vet has given him the OK (he is a tortoise specialist).

But honestly, I'm still worried about mould/mildew. It seems to be a battle between low humidity and no mould, or high humidity and mould.

If you look at what I have done previously, you will see that I added an additional tank and filled it with reptibark. It worked fine, but was very dry (humidity LOW to none). The other side of the tank (which has topsoil) has a humidity of 70-80. I thought this was fine, but a) he seemed to be nibbling the occasional bit of reptibark, and b) I was worried about the very low humidity.

So I pulled out the reptibark and added topsoil into the other side of the tank (see pictures)



I have two 100W ceramic heat bulbs (one in each tank). Temperatures range from 33c (max) to 26c (min), which gives him a few zones to choose where to be in the tank. The temps dip somewhat at night.

The humidity is better (70% min throughout the tank) but now I think the mould is coming back. I've tried coco-coir. I've tried a humidifier.

My next plan is to treat and seal the tank with some kind of epoxy resin. But I'm not convinced that will solve the underlying problem. I've got the Redfoot Manual. Any advice?