so confused...

[Tygrissy]

Hello everyone. My name is Bethany. I live in North Texas.
We just bought our baby on sunday. They say 'he' is about 4 months old. I would add a picture of him and his home but it keeps saying the site has crashed when i try.
Anyhow...we have been doing research for many months tryin to make sure we were well informed before adopting a tortoise! Why i am so confused is this is the first place that i have seen make a lot of reference to humidity. All the other forums and websites i have come across only make brief comments saying most dont do well with humidity.
Right now we have

 

[dmmj]

Welcome
So what type of tortoise do you have?

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum...

 

[Neal]

Each forum has its own culture. There are good bits from even the older forums that I think every tortoise owner could benefit from. As you have discovered, this forum is all about raising tortoises in high humid environments. It has all but been proven here that tortoises can thrive in high humid environments, the jury is still out on any long term effects raising them this way may have, but for now it seems to be working well for a lot of people.

As far as high humidity being necessary and to what extent, I consider it to be a debatable subject so I think that is where you will find any differing opinions on this site on humidity.

 

[tortuga_please]

Depends on the species, the only species that it has been definitively proven for is Sulcatas. Just try what works for you and what makes your tort happy

 

[Missy]

Short answer, warm and humid is good cool and humid is bad. Like stated above, depends on what kind of tortoise you have.

 

[IkeLightner]

Im curious, how have Sulcatas been proven? I thought leopard tortoises were in the same category with the humidity as the Sulcatas....??

 

[Katherine]

Welcome Bethany! I think the reason you find so much conflicting advice is because tortoises just simply have not been captive pets for long enough for us to have developed the absolute best way to raise them...but those of us who love or tortoises try very hard to get it right : ) Everyday as a tortoise owner is a learning experience and the best advice I can offer you is to read read read read with an openmind and make your own decisions.

Paying careful attention to your tortoises health and behavior will help you know that you are doing the right thing, or when it may be best to modify your care. I have leopard tortoises as well and for their entire lives I have lived in naturally high humidity climates and offered humid hides and the appear to thrive, so that is what works for me currently. I hope you find this forum helpful- I know I have : )

 

[Tom]

Depends on the species, the only species that it has been definitively proven for is Sulcatas. Just try what works for you and what makes your tort happy

I don't know what constitutes proof in your mind, but I have 10 leopards that are even smoother than my sulcatas that were raised with the "wet" routine. Lots and lots of other people on this site have exceddingly smooth ones too.

 

[Zamric]

The Jury is still out on Eros and Gaia, but their young ages is the only reason!

 

[SulcataSquirt]

I would say High humidity plays a big role in most tortoises shells to grow smooth. redfoot, leopard, sulcata, and several others almost all of the torts that I have seen that were raised the humid way have near to perfect shells, all the torts i have seen raised the dry routine, well Im going to put this Toms way, their shell looks like a big ol knobby tire, not so smooth. Im a year and 8 months in on raising my sulcata and i wouldnt change from the humid route for anything. It had proven to me the humidity grows a smooth shell.

 

[Tom]

Bethany, hello and welcome. Here are a bunch of threads that I put together. The discussion in them might help to explain a lot for you.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Helpful-Threads#axzz1mIhjUulp

The warm, humid and hydrated thing is relatively new and most of the reptile community has just not caught on yet. All the old books and websites speculate about what kind of conditions wild adult leopards live in and then assume that babies need the same thing. First of all the info about the adults is often incorrect, and secondly, almost nothing is known about what the babies do or don't do in the wild. Everyone who says its one way or another is speculating wildly and usually wrong. What we are left with, in the absence of real data on wild babies, is what works, and what does not work in captivity. For two decades, what most of us did and advocated did not work. I failed miserably many many times. Luckily, collectively, we have all been figuring out what works and sharing the info with each other, and things are changing for the better. Different people have been having success with various new ideas, but I think we unanimously agree that hot, desert conditions 24/7, is NOT the way to go. Often books and websites report that these are "desert" animals and come from "arid" regions. This completely ignores, seasonal variations, the millions of available micro climates within their huge range, and the vast variety of different climates and weather within their huge range. In other words, even if it is very dry out on an open plain somewhere within the range of the leopard tortoise, it might not be so dry near the stream or river or marsh area where at least some of these babies hide away in secret for their first few years...

 

[Neal]

The warm, humid and hydrated thing is relatively new and most of the reptile community has just not caught on yet. All the old books and websites speculate about what kind of conditions wild adult leopards live in and then assume that babies need the same thing. First of all the info about the adults is often incorrect, and secondly, almost nothing is known about what the babies do or don't do in the wild. Everyone who says its one way or another is speculating wildly and usually wrong. What we are left with, in the absence of real data on wild babies, is what works, and what does not work in captivity. For two decades, what most of us did and advocated did not work. I failed miserably many many times. Luckily, collectively, we have all been figuring out what works and sharing the info with each other, and things are changing for the better. Different people have been having success with various new ideas, but I think we unanimously agree that hot, desert conditions 24/7, is NOT the way to go. Often books and websites report that these are "desert" animals and come from "arid" regions. This completely ignores, seasonal variations, the millions of available micro climates within their huge range, and the vast variety of different climates and weather within their huge range. In other words, even if it is very dry out on an open plain somewhere within the range of the leopard tortoise, it might not be so dry near the stream or river or marsh area where at least some of these babies hide away in secret for their first few years...

Good explanation here Tom. While I say I don't believe high humidity is absolutely necessary, I don't mean to imply that keeping them dry 24/7 is the better alternative. The elements tortoises are exposed to in the wild will fluctuate daily and by season, and we try to incorporate some of that "random" elemental exposure into our husbandry.

 

[Tygrissy]

Thanks yall for the welcome.
Sorry about post cutting off. Was trying to get dimensions and battery was low on phone...did not know it actually sent it. Thought i accidently closed it out ha.
Anyhow we have a leopard tortoise. My husband set everything up so the substrate name i can not think of....our lighting is pretty good considerin what i have read on here...plus have the infrared light for the night. That ones sitting at 50watt. Only one i wonder about. We have a 42x18x18 set up for the time being. Of course will be going bigger once he starts growing.
I tried to do an attachment here but it said application crashed each time so i will try to find a way to post some pics to get ideas of what we could do different

I absolutely LOvE differences of opinions because it opens our eyes to options we have never been introduced to. Thanks again for the replies so far and hope to hear back in the future!!!