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hi everyone i need some advice please.
I need some help keeping the humidity up in the enclosure for my T. Blondi. right now it is in a 10 gallon tank it is only 4 months old. i have tried misting the cage a few times a day, a bubble stone in a water dish (that the tarantula can not get into) and seran wrap under half of the lid. temps stay around 80 degrees i get the humidity up to 80% but then it drops back down to around 60%. any ideas would be helpful thank you. Bonnie

OH almost forgot i am using organic potting soil for bedding and have a live plant but nothing is working.

Striving to achieve and maintain a high humidity level is an exercise in futility. It is nearly impossible, without buying a bunch of expensive equipment. My first question for you, is why are you trying to get the humidity so high? It seems that if you are between 60% and 80%, then you have nothign to worry about. Personally I don't believe anything over 75% is healthy. It just promotes mold and pest bug infestations. With all tarantulas it is better to err on the side of too dry than too wet.

How deep is your substrate? Ideally your 10 gallon tank should be about half full of substrate. For one, this gives your T ample depth to be able to burrow, if they so choose. Also, having more substrate allows more water retention in the cage.

What is the legspan of the T?

Do you have a cave or a hiding spot? If you are measuring the humidity level with a guage that is placed on the side of the tank, then you're not really measuring the level of humidity that the T is experiencing. If there is moisture in the substrate (and you have a plant so I assume there is) then the humidity level right at the surface is much higher than what you are measuring. If there is a cave or hide box, then that is also an area where humidity can be higher.

You don't want a constant humidity level, that is not what they experience in the wild, so variation is healthy. In the wild a T will experience lower humidity in the ambient air and a higher humidity in their burrow.

What I do, is keep my waterdish in one corner of the cage. When I refill my waterdish I overflow it so I soak about 1/4 of the substrate. This will create a high humidity side and a lower humidity side. The T then get a gradient to choose the level it likes best. Now, soaked substrate is not good in the long run, so I let it dry out in between waterings.

-KJ
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KJ Vezino
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