Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have a new herp in the house! Hurley is a 3 month RF who's already growing a personality and is a good eater.

One thing that we've noticed is that the likes to hunker down in his bedding quite a bit to keep moist. I work from home, so I am able to mist him regularly, but even so, his habitat only gets as high as about 50%, and doesn't stay there for long.

We compensate with soaks, but I'd like to make his environment safer.

Habitat:
- Indoor hatchling enclosure
- Glass aquarium (don't panic - walls are covered up to 6" to block the view)
- Good sized, humid hide
- Dipping pool
- screen top
- porcelain bulb for heating "warm end" (temp is fine)
- UVB light fixture, used 13h/day

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HERE'S MY QUESTION:

If I place a glass or plexi cover on top of most of the enclosure to preserve humidity (need to leave it open at the heated end), will I negate the UVB rays?

Are there other suggestions?
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Thanks,
Jett

Ditch the UVB bs, use a small indoor flood for your basking spot, and cover 90% of whatever is making the humidity escape. All my indoor Torts have no access to any UVB and they do just fine. Using something like a 30 watt indoor flood will still give you a 130 degree basking spot at 6", but will not dry out the enclosure like mega watt bulbs will. Always keep in mind that if you can't lower the actual fixture, you can raise the basking spot to get the temps where they need to be. You also have to make sure to not restrict too much airflow, but it will take some tinkering to get it right.

Hey Eric - I just realized that I never replied.

Thanks for your response! That's a good lookin' fella you have there...I'm guessing 'fella' by his plastron.

How old is he?

I couldn't tell you how old he is, however he's one of the bigger males I've seen come out of the Northern Shield. He's close to 14" SL. I need to find him a Female that compliments him color wise though.

This is what I keep my Cherry head Redfoot in, and I have no problem with the humidity. On one side I have a 100 wt. heat emitter, and on the other side a long tube UVB 5.0 light. That is the cool side. The heat emitter keeps the hot side pretty steady at 85 - 87 degrees. The cool side stays at 72 - 75 degrees. For the humidity, I keep plants in there and water them every other day. This keeps the humidity at about 80 degrees. I have for a substrate a mix of peat moss, Zoo Med forest floor and potting soil. I put some tropical moss on top of that and some leaf litter (collected outside in my yard) I planted some rose of Shannon, geranium, and dandelion, chicks and hens, and some spring mix seeds. This set up is only good for hatchlings or juvies as anything bigger will only trash it. under his hide..on the hot side..I put long fibered moss dampened....not wet, as he could get a fungus from laying in anything too wet. So far this is working for me. He has an option, to go on the cool side or the hot side. The top is a screen, with holes for the heat emitter on the hot side. The rest of the screen, I covered with clear packing tape or you could put the plexi glass.The back and sides are comvered and 6 in. across the front.

Packing Tape!!!!

Absolutely brilliant - it's the simple answers I love.

Thanks Terryo!!!

/JG

Hey Terryo!
That is a really nice setup you have!!
couple questions for you... does the hide need to be on the hot side, because i have mine on the cool side? are your plants in pots under the soil, or do you just plant them right in your substrate? and have you had any problems with little tiny bugs, because when i used a mix of cypress mulch and soil, i kept getting little bugs in my enclosure, so now i use fir mulch.
i have problems with humidity also, so i want to try a set up like yours! i don't really like the fir mulch, so if yours works, i'm going to do that!
Thanks for the help!

The hide is under the hot side. For the last three days I noticed the he is under a plant on the cool side. All the temp.'s are the same. The substrate is deep enough so I put the plants right in the soil. As he is getting older I notice that he stays out of the hide a lot more. He used to spend the whole day in there except when he came out to eat. Now he will sit under the geranium plant for a while and then take a drink and wander around a bit more. I have never seen any bugs, but if there is any crawley things (which I haven't noticed) I think it would be OK as there must be plenty on the forest floor under leaves where he would be in the wild. On fruit day, I take out the left overs as soon as he finishes eating so I don't get any of the little fruit flies in there. On greens day, I leave in whatever he doesn't finish and he comes around looking to finish it later on in the day. I had him in a plastic storage bin, and found that I was cleaning it all the time. I really never clean this vivarium, except to take out the poop, when I see it. If I don't get around to taking it out fast enough, this is what happens.