Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am thinking of ways to up the humididty in my table top type encloure for my redfoot. He is very young and inside vs outside for the most part at this stage of his life. I put a humidifier in the room and mist it down am/pm but humidity does not stay that high. I was thinking of getting an apple misting system to spray the enclosure a couple of times during the day while I am at work. Has anyone had any luck with these?
Thanks
Derrick

I have been using the Big Apple misting system for my redfoot enclosure for about 18 months now. I have a relatively big L-shaped enclosure measuring 2.4 m on one side and 1.6 m on the other, with 80 cm depth (see picture below). I have the misting nozzles installed along the front sides of the enclosure, 3 of them on the longer and 2 on the shorter side. I use the shortest misting cycle (1 min.) every 2 (winter) to 3 hours (summer).
With my enclosure being pretty much closed (acrylic glass dome) I achieve a 20% higher humidity level in the enclosure over ambient.
My substrate is cypress mulch.

While my redfoots were hatchlings I filled their hide houses with moist spaghnum moss, which was very efficient in providing local higher humidity. They were in a much smaller enclosure at that time, which I hand-misted twice a day.

Gaby

WOW!!!! What a great enclosure, that is REALLY REALLY nice! I am sure your Torts LOVE it. I have an open enclosure and it is hard to keep the humidity in, but I am going to try the misting system, maybe set it to spray more frequently. What types of plants do you have in your enclosure? I would like to plant more plants. I have a jade pland and impatience sp?? now.
Thanks
Derrick

Thanks for your nice words about the enclosure!
Unfortunately almost all the plants I have in the enclosure are fake. After working myself through many toxic and edible plant lists I still found too much controversy to take a chance. On top the tropical plants are available at our nurseries often don't have a tag with a latin name and so are difficult to identify for me. I might know the species but not the cultivar, and I am not sure if a whole species is edible or just the cultivars in these lists.
I added some bromeliads since the picture I posted was taken, which I fixed on the various grape vines, so the tortoises can't eat them. But when one fell it was a welcome snack (but at least I know that these shouldn't harm them).

I am very happy with the misting system (realized I have had it for 2 and a half years now). The nozzles have to be cleaned (we use coffee maker decalcifier solution) and / or replaced at times. We have found it helpful to tie a few layers of linen over the water intake hose to somewhat reduce the buildup of mineral deposits in the hose and on the nozzles.
From my experience (and following physical laws) humidity is difficult to trap in an open top enclosure. You might want to consider a partly closed one or hiding places that are enclosed enough to trap humidity when kept moist.
I have been a big fan of spaghnum moss, which I also had distributed on top of the cypress mulch and which acts like a sponge. This in combination with hand misting or the misting system was a lot more efficient than the cypress mulch only medium I use now. The reason why I switched was, that my tortoises seemed to develop very slightly rough plastrons. An experienced friend of mine was suggesting, that the pH of the moist spaghnum, which is very low, might cause this slight corrosion. In the meantime the plastrons are very nice again, but in terms of humidity levels I am not able to reach what I used to reach anymore. And this has caused the carapaces to develop a bit less smoothly than before.
It looks like if, no matter how hard I try, I always have to settle for compromises...

Good luck with yours,
Gaby