Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just out of curiosity and possibly future reference:

I have a question for those of you that keep tree monitors and other monitors that need very high humidity (jobiensis, etc). Do you ventilate the enclosure? Or do you keep it sealed fairly tight?

I imagine those of you up north have a harder time keeping the humidity and temperatures up than I do in NC.

FYI: The lowest the humidity has ever been in my Dumerils enclosure is 60%, it is over 85% right now. I water the plant and/or substrate as needed which helps the humidity. If it seems dry I mist the dirt, walls, and ceiling. This enclosure is ventilated.

I am building something similier to this enclosure but it will only be 4X3X7 feet. The vent is on the right and a hole for the light wires is on the left high up.

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Ed

We like to keep the humidity high while maintaining good airflow and for this reason we absolutely ventilate our enclosures. Of course, this requires extra effort on our part as it necessitates our misting the cages up to four or more times daily, but our monitors are thriving in this set-up. Proper choice of substrate is also essential when attempting to maintain high humidity levels. We currently reside in Colorado (an extremely dry climate) and manage to keep our humidity levels consistently around 85-90%. Our monitors are worth the extra work and when you don't have shed problems, etc. you will be thankful for the additional time you've invested. Others may disagree, but this has worked very well for us.

Jennifer Guerra
Jungle Gems Exotics
www.JungleGemsExotics.com

I would most deffinatly ventilate the enclousure. However If you have been in any of the climates where these animals are from you would notice that the humididy keeps th air thick and heavy and it doesnt move much. Theirfor herps dont nd a ton of air moving through the enclousure. I would rcomend only 2-5 complete air changes per hour. I would recomend a few small holes drilled in the sides of it. I recently built a enclousure using plans from treemonitors.com. my enclousure is for a timor monitor it is 3 wide x 2 deep x 4tall. I drilled 2 pair or 1/4 inch holes in each side. 2 at the bottom on the hott side of the cage and 2 at the top of the cooler side. 8 holes seemed to b to many as i still have a hard time keeping the humidity up where i need it. However that sounds like a good number for your larger enclousure. the placement of the holes is important as with some on the bottom and some one the top it creates a chimney effect. or maybe an s shape that the air flows in the bottom up and out the other side. so venting is a good idea but on a small well thought out scale will do just fine sorry for the long post.

Joel