[Saurian]

I am having issues with humidity I think. My male sikorae seems like he does well when its raining outside as stupid as this sounds but as soon as it stops he goes back to not doing so well. The room humidity is about 35% and the tank is about the same. I mist twice a day. Morning and night for about 30 seconds. For the life of me I can not get it above this. Sometimes its get to 40 and when it's raining sometimes 45. Im getting nervous cause I see crickets moving around inside (which I take out to avoid stress)and not a lot of poop. I dont know what Im doing wrong. I do fine with phants but for some reason sikorae is kicking my butt. I thought these were easier? :-p. Extremely frustrating.

Temps are: Between 70-75 during the day mainly hangs around 72-73.
Night temps are about 67-68 sometimes 65 depending on temps outside.

I live in Indiana. The weather is so dry here in the winter. Sucks. Gotta go to inlaws. Thanks for any help.

[rhacoboy]

You need to get the humidity higher than 45%, that is most likely your issue. I'm surprised your Phants do so well at such levels, I would think that they too would require a bit higher humidity.

[pakinjak]

What kind of enclosure do you have them in?

also, have you tried a humidifier? You can get one for the room you keep the animals in and should be able to raise it in the 50% range.

[Mallick]

a good way to keep steady high humidity is putting hydrobeads underneath your substrate.
That is the main issue ur dealing with, it's just too low.

what you say about raining outside doesn't sound stupid. All my phants eggs hatched when it was raining. Still thinking it was because of pressure drop.

[aquapimp]

We're at 27% at the moment up here in the North East.

The Mist King I just hooked up is a god send. Its getting the humidity up to 90% at night then falling to 50% mid day.

It was tough for me to keep the percentage up too, last round of Uroplatus keeping. I believe that was a major reason for some of the difficulties I was experiencing.

automation is a nice piece of mind.

[pakinjak]

Ooooh, I love sharing husbandry...

I use a mister made by Pro Products, firing for one minute three times per day... one at 6:30 pm, one at 11:00 pm and one at 5:30 am. I use a humidifier in the room too. If I leave it alone the room humidity will get down to around 35% but I try to keep the entire room around 45-60% in the winter.

[Saurian]

I know I have to raise it but have tried everything from covering one side to misting more. I put a humidifier in the room. Dont know why I didnt think of that. Do you guys leave it on all day and all night or leave it on all day and then turn it down at night? Right now I have it turned on 50% right next to the cage. Thanks guys.

[MauricesExoticPets]

There are a few factors that must be addressed, and all factors work together to make the environment optimal.

1) Eliminate humidity loss, a simple glass sheet over the enclosure will accomplish this.

2) Control air exchange, an aquarium air pump will force air into the enclosure at a rate that is noted on the pump itself. At least one full air exchange per hour is fine.

3) Provide a method of removing excessive humidity, a computer fan that exhausts air out of the enclosure at a rate of one full air exchange per minute is fine. This is where a humidistat comes in, the humidistat should be set to reduce humidity until it matches the level you desire.

4) Use a humidity adding system of some sort that is run on a timed cycle or a second humidistat, misters, foggers, etc. will all do the trick. The aquarium air pump can work double duty here if the output is placed under water, the bubbles will increase evaporation and humidity.

5) Ensure all electrical items within the enclosure such as lights are protected from excessive humidity and do not cause an electrocution hazard.

note: yes, a timer or two humidistats are required on the humidity adding part of this system, when a humidistat or timer is only used to add humidity there can be situations where the humidity level becomes excessive, when one is used only to remove excessive humidity there can be situations where the owner fails to introduce the proper levels of humidity in a timely manner creating excessively dry situations.

Timers can be used in conjunction with humidity adding devices to create a very realistic environment where rain falls when it should, fog develops in the morning, and the entire system stays within your set humidity levels.

I prefer to set timers up so that they power my humidistats, which in turn power the humidity adding devices. This causes a somewhat random schedule of humidity addition, our system uses misters which can go on any time between 6pm-7pm, 3pm-4pm, and 6am-7am if and only if the level of humidity is lower than desired.

Adjusting exchange rate also adjusts how fast the humidity levels fall, very fast exchange rates lower humidity faster, slow exchange rates slow humidity loss. Determining what works in your situation and for your critters is a matter of trial and error, I prefer not to have more than three misting events per day along with no more than a 5% loss in humidity between misting.

Using the above system gives you a ton of freedom from worry about humidity levels, I prefer it for its high degree of accuracy and elimination of human fault in keeping their enclosures environment as close to optimal as is possible.

Maurice Pudlo