Moisture/humidity for outdoor enclosure

mini_max

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Alberta, Canada
Max (russian) is now living full time outside. I'm new to outdoor tortoise keeping and I'm wondering if I need to be concerned about humidity out there. Aside from having some moist soil/bark/sphagnum in his hide (which he is still refusing to use without intervention), it's pretty warm and dry. He insists on spending the warmest part of the day in half a pot under a plant.

He gets soaked regularly. Is there anything else I should be doing?
 

leigti

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southeast Washington
What is the temperature during the warmest part of the day? Your tortoise may hide out in the shade during that time. When it gets hot here, like it is today at 95°, I hosed down the enclosure with a garden hose a couple times during the day. This drops the temperature by about 10° in the enclosure. Do you have a temperature gun? If so you may notice that the temperature in the enclosure may be much warmer than the air temperature. Having some moisture in the soil is not a bad idea. Your Russian might want to dig anywhere in the enclosure. How cold does it get at night? Will he need a heated hide for nighttime?
 

mini_max

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Alberta, Canada
It's around 90 ish right now, but it was way hotter earlier and he did hide out. Coincidently, I actually just did a spray down.

Nights are warm. If it's unusually cold or rainy, I am thinking it will be no less than 50s at night. But normally much warmer. We do plan to offer heat in the hide, but right now it's really warm so we haven't put it in. This is our first outdoor experience, so I'm constantly taking temps. Maybe we won't wind up needing heat...
 

leigti

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Just keep the wet human hide, also just hose it down when it gets hot. You can still soak your tortoise it definitely won't hurt anything. I think it's humid and wet enough as long as the dirt doesn't get really dry. Especially the top layer.
 

DawnH

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I found a really cool stand mister at Home Depot for $10 last year. I will put this on one side of Tuleo's enclosure in the heat of a day as a cool down option. It keeps everything nice and moist but isn't heavy like a sprinkler (I do hose down his outdoor enclosure before I put him out and then again after lunch.) I live in SETX so our summers can get pretty damn brutal.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Orbit-Cobra-Mistand-10057W/100373188
 
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