Raising humidity

[masters02]

Hello All,

Last weekend we completely overhauled our enclosure for our 4 month female as the humidity wasnt right (20%RH).

We have since loaded the enclosure with live plants, 2 small hibiscus, 2 small bromeliads, and a large 4ft fiscus tree which takes up most of the right hand side of the cage (she loves it).

We have an extra large all screen Repitbreeze cage, but we have covered the back with sheet plastic to try and increase the humidity, but its only risen to about 40%RH, when i mist with warm water is only goes up to around 45%RH.

Should i cover another section of her cage with sheeting? Im worried about URI if i cover up too much, so is getting a humidifier a better idea?

Any ideas appreciated.

 

[SaintJimmy]

If you have that many live plants, just water them frequently, and mist his cage nice and good.

You don't NEED ___% all the time, but you DO need dry periods throughout the day. This is why we mist or have a misting system.

 

[masters02]

We have increased the length of her misting sessions, she gets around 2-3minutes of constant misting 2-3 times a day, we had to created a drainage system as it leaves a lot of excess water. She also has a 1 gallon dripper dripping slowly for around 4-5hrs a day.

The reason im concerned about her humidity is because she seems to have slowed down a little over the past 2 days and i have only seen her drink once or twice. Her urates (the ones we can find) have been half white, half yellow so i know she isnt 100% hydrated.

I have read on here that the increase in humidity stimulates them to drink more? We have only had her a week, so perhaps we are just panicing over nothing?!

 

[Carlton]

but we have covered the back with sheet plastic to try and increase the humidity, but its only risen to about 40%RH, when i mist with warm water is only goes up to around 45%RH.

Should i cover another section of her cage with sheeting? Im worried about URI if i cover up too much, so is getting a humidifier a better idea?

Any ideas appreciated.

You may have to do both especially at this time of year when you are probably heating your home more. Really dries out the air and if you use forced air heating the air movement it creates speeds up evaporation. I have put plastic sheeting on back, sides, and a portion of the front of my screen cages without problems as long as there is some air exchange. It doesn't take much. And, the plastic sheeting provides even more surfaces to hold spray droplets until they evaporate. Again, if you have forced air heating that will help, or you could cycle a small fan somewhere near the cage to push the air around. What you want to avoid is the really sealed environment that a dart frog tank might produce.

If you decide to add a humdifier you can cycle it on and off to create higher and lower RH periods. And, if it uses an internal fan this creates air exchange.