Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know it's a little bit of a touchy/controversial subject round here and that's fine. I have a question in reguards to what people are using in their "burrowed" hides as a soil to keep it humid down there?
I was thinking about trying it since I have to totally revamp the cage through my de-worming process. I am thinking about trying completely new stuff instead of sand this time around but I can't do soil cause the cage is wood...that's neither here nor there anyway but in the process I am thinking about trying to work in an "underground" hide as a humidity hide as an option to go into. I have a 4x2x2 tank so I have the ability to fit it in.
Are you using moss? soil? what kind? how often do you have to wet it? Giv eme a rundown on the use of a humidity hide here...

Please do not take this thread and make it a way to discuss if it is a good idea or not - I think that was covered about 20 posts down. I know some are for it and some are against it. Frankly, it's a thought I have and I don't want people to try to talk me outta it cause I have read about the good, the bad and the ugly about it. I jsut want to know what has worked for the people that have/are using it. Thank you.

I'm Will and I approve this message

I've got pretty much what's described on Doug Dix's site. It's a 3.3gal Rubbermaid tub with a hole cut in the side and flexible tubing jammed in the hole to make an entrance tunnel. The box is filled up to the level of the hole with organic potting soil (screened to get the big chunks out) and sand - roughly 50-50 by volume. Once about every two weeks I crack the lid and check to see if I need to add water. When I do, I just pour a little in and mix it up with my hands to get it evenly damp. It's not meant for burrowing, and it doesn't hold one. But the Malis do dig a lot in theirs - the Saharans just sleep on top of the dirt.

Just for fun, I went in just now and checked the Saharan's box - I topped it off to get it as humid as it every gets, then checked it with my digital hygrometer. The regular tank is 20% and in the hide it's 69%.

Here's a pic of my total setup in that cage. There's even bonus lizard in the shot.

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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
2.0.1 Uromastyx Dispar Maliensis (Tank, Turtle, and Spike)
1.2 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser, Leeloo, and Sprocket)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)
And several miscellaneous community fish

thanks for the info...
What size tank is that? how close is the baskig lamp to the humid hide?
So 50/50 organic potting soil and playsand. Got it. Thank you

let me correct myself to ask how hot that blacklight is above the humid hide? How hot do you allow it to get? thanks

It's an 80 gallon tank. The basking side is on the right with basking temps around 115-120F, ambient warm temps of 100F, and the cool side is 75-80F. The little light above the humid hide is a new thing I'm trying. I didn't used to have it there, and the temps in the hide were 75F or lower. Now it's about 80 inside the hide, which is more where I wanted it. I caught them mating recently and thought that if she ends up with eggs, she'll want to lay them somewhere with warmer temps for incubating.

They can also hide under the basking rock for warmer hiding, or inside the log or the tube for cooler hiding.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
2.0.1 Uromastyx Dispar Maliensis (Tank, Turtle, and Spike)
1.2 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser, Leeloo, and Sprocket)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)
And several miscellaneous community fish

very cool. thanks for the info. I am working with a 4x2x2 so there should be enough space to toss something like that in there. Now I jsut need to decide what I am going to put them on.
They are being treated for hookworms right now so they are on newspaper and i originally had them on playsand/millet but I am thinking about trying something new cause of the dust factor. It has been galvanized, washed, sterilized playsand but there is still a dust factor and I have noticed their colors are brighter for the last few days that they haven't been on sand and I like what I am seeing so I am thinking that since I had to do a complete substrate change anyway, now would be thee time to try something new..

I just change my uro's setup (I don't like to because it throws her off for a bit, but I needed to). I got a couple 20 pound bags of soil (all they had was potting soil! I have to wait until summer to get good soil....if you use potting soil look for stuff that's most like topsoil, because the stuff I found isn't too bad). I put that in so that on the cool side there was only a couple inches, but on the warmside and the middle of the tank (which is the same temp as the cool side basically), I put about 5 or 6" of dirt in. This wasn't enough to hold a real burrow, especially with just potting soil. So what I did was I pushed all of the soil over to the cool side for a minute except for about 1" of it. I took the bottom section of my retes stack (note: I dont' have holes cut in mine which is why this worked), and I set that all the way to the warm side so that the only open side was pointed towards the middle of the tank. I packed dirt inside of it. then I took a piece of cork bark that I had lying around that's about 14" long x 7 or 8" wide (and it is curved sort of like a long version of those habba huts, except lower). I set this in so that one end of it is going into the retes stack, and put some dirt in it too. Then I put the soil back in on the warm side, completely covering that section of the retes stack and most of the cork bark, so if you're looking at it all setup, it just looks like a burrow supported by some cork bark protruding out of the dirt. She is starting to dig the dirt out of the retes stack (customizing the burrow ), and in there it's naturally a much higher humidity. After all that I took the other section of the retes stack and set it ontop of the dirt (that's on top of the other section) on the warm side.

I don't know, it's just something I'm proud of right now It was the closest thing to a real burrow that I could make for her little 48"x13"x13" tank.

As for your cage, I am building a few 4'x2'x2' cages right now (because mine are too small, as I've said). I'm going to line them with FRP (fiber reinforced plastic of something like that) and put silicone in all the corners and everything to make it completely water tight. I'm also going to put about a 10" substrate dam on my uro's tank. This is a modification I just came up with though, so instead of completely changing the cages we've begun building, I'm going to use either just FRP, or a combination of that and plywood to make a substrate dam inside the tank. It's going to make the viewing area noticably smaller, but it's for the good of the reptile. It will finally let her build a real burrow.

As for a burrow box. It's not the same as a burrow, but it will get the job done. The trick is finding just where the uro wants it to be (to get the right heat). Other than that, just follow the guidelines already stated, it's pretty straight forward.

wow. sounds like quite the project. Any way you can put up a pick pf what you have done. I think I followed everything but it would be helpful to see it (I'm a visual person). If I were to go to a moist soil in the whole tank I would have to line the whole thing because it's just wood and the longterm effect of moisture on wood is not something that I want to deal with....not yet
i understand what you are saying about finding the right temp in teh humid hide and they are pretty active and I am around during the days so I can watch and see how they react as I move it around to see where they like it best. I think for the current setup (being wood) the humid hide is going to be my best bet but I would like to hear how your new setup is going to work. Keep us posted.

Pics please

My digital camera is broken, but my older brother is coming home from college for the weekend, so I've just gotta hope he brings home his camera. If I can find a way to get a pic this weekend, I'll post it up here.

With your cage, completely waterproofing like I outlined is a large task, so I can understand why you would want to do the humid hide thing instead. If you did line the cage with plastic, you would have to find a place to keep your uro while the silicone dries and stuff.

yeah. they are on newspaper for the next month anyway so not a total rush but the sooner the better