Providing a humid hide allows your tortoise the ability to decide for itself. Dehydration seems to be one of the major factors in pyramiding. In the wild sulcatas often spend a good portion in the day in burrows where the humidity is much higher than it is above ground. If you create a humid "burrow" or hide, the tortoise can choose to enter this microhabitat when it needs to, and you can keep the rest of the enclosure at a lower/moderate humidity.



There are a few ways to create a humid hide. One way is to water the inside of the hide on a regular basis, how well this works will depend on the substrate you use and how easily it molds. Another way is to use a clay pot on its side and put a wet natural sponge on it. Just water the sponge when dry. The clay absorbs water very well and will make the inside of is humid. Another way is to have a canister with a lid, put two holes in the lid just big enough for aquarium airline tubing. Get an air pump and an airstone and some airline tubing. Run a length of tubing from the pump through one holes into the canister with the airstone on the end, put this in the bottom of the canister. Run a second length of tubing from the canister through the other hole and into the hide. Have the end of the tubing be at the top of the canister. Fill the canister half way with water, plug in the air pump. This will be pumping humid air into the hide.

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