I am having humidity troubles

squeekz1992

squeekz1992

New Member
I have about 6 life plants (in 2 tubs) in Kuzco's cage, actually I think its more bc I just added some. But anyhow, I cannot, for the life of me, get his humidity up past 20%. I have a humidifier, the live plants, paper towel as substrate, a Mist King set to go off every hour for 30 seconds, and I mist him 3 times a day.

What am I doing wrong?? Is it just because of the bitter cold we've been having?? His temps are fine but his humidity is being difficult :(

Any suggestions?
 
I'm just gonna give you this link right now in case I go to bed soon. https://www.chameleonforums.com/just-wondering-humidifiers-104131/

You can also try to cover 2-3 of the sides with shower curtain or trash bag but if you have the correct humidifier, there should be no need for this.

-Also (I'm no expert) but I think your mistking is going off too frequently. I believe you're supposed to allow enough time in between mists to completely dry out so as to not develop a mold/bacteria issue. Every hour seems to much. I do 4 hour intervals with like 2 mins 30 sec durations. Longer intervals are better because it allows them more time to stimulate drinking.
 
Are you sure it's being measured correctly? It seems illogical that it would still be that low with everything you're doing. I'd recommend wrapping 3 sides f the cage with clear shower curtain liner to help retain the moisture inside the cage. That helped a lot for me. Is the cage in the line of a heating vent? Heating and ac will definitely dry the air out. Make sure it's measuring right too. I don't even have to do that much and the natural humidity is around 20% here.
 
ferretinmyshoes said:
Are you sure it's being measured correctly? It seems illogical that it would still be that low with everything you're doing.
Click to expand...

I agree. What kind of hygrometer do you have? Is it like a dial or is it digital. Digital is preferred because they are generally more accurate.
 
I agree on the measuring device. What are you using? I have found the dials to be pretty inaccurate or inconsitent rather, for the most part. When I started I had three and all three were saying different humidities even when in the same place. Two of them were way different. Then I used one of my zilla digital probes that measures humidity and temp and it was closest to the dial that was reading way different than the other two ....so go figure.
Since then I also used another digital one just to test and make sure they were accurate and both digital probes read the same thing.

I have troubles at times keeping mine up, it will go up to 80% or so but drops back down pretty low. For me it is just so dry right now with the winter weather as well as we have very large single ply windows which desperately need some caulking around the edges so I also assume that is not helping.
 
It's a warm mist..I will get an ultrasonic I guess.
The cage does dry out completely, and I also clean it 2x a week, so mold and fungi are out of the question. I would know if there was any because I would go into anaphylaxis.

The hygrometer I use is a Digital hygrometer from Petsmart. Dials are definitely crap. Maybe the hygrometer is wrong, idk, it could be because Kuzco isn't doing anything weird (i.e. he's shedding normally, and when handled his skin doesn't feel weird or anything like that.)

He is about 5 feet away from a floor vent, but his cage sits at about 6 feet tall, so Idk if the floor vent being that far away would mess with his humidity.

He's definitely drinking. I see him drink every time it goes off. It goes off at 9, 11, 1, 3, and 5 for 30 seconds. So I was wrong it goes off every 2 hours. and my mom stays home during the day so he gets misted when she feeds him (I leave before his lights go on & don't get home most days till about an hour to lights off), and she mists him at least one more time during the day.

I just checked the humidity in Bloomington, and it says 61%, so is it even possible for his humidity to be so low??:confused::confused::confused:

Thanks for the replies guys, I really appreciate it!
 
If I set the mister to go off anymore it won't dry completely in between.
My summer project is going to be to make a water proof backing for his cage. But I can't do anything too permanent yet bc I might be switching rooms with my sister (it has more windows which would be awesome for Kuzco)
 
If your natural humidity is 60% I really doubt that indoors would drop it that much. Unless you're running the heating 24/7 (as in running the entire time), which even then wouldn't be expected to be that low honestly...I'd get a new hygrometer first.
 
squeekz1992 said:
It's a warm mist..I will get an ultrasonic I guess.
The cage does dry out completely, and I also clean it 2x a week, so mold and fungi are out of the question. I would know if there was any because I would go into anaphylaxis.

I just checked the humidity in Bloomington, and it says 61%, so is it even possible for his humidity to be so low??:confused::confused::confused:
Click to expand...

A warm mist humidifier won't do anything in terms of raising the humidity. You should defiantly go with a COOL MIST ultrasonic. And yeah, grab a diff digital hygrometer and compare.
 
Will it say on the box that's its cool mist? I haven't ever bought a humidifier before lol my mom gave it to me.

I will definitely grab a different hygro.
Thanks for all the help and I'll let ya'll know how it works:D
 
Get a new hydrometer. Yours is bunk.

I mist mine 4 times a day for varied times and have a fogger but before the fogger I didn't have that bad of a problem.

Your stuff is bunk. Invest in a new one. It will pay off in the long run.
 
squeekz1992 said:
Will it say on the box that's its cool mist? I haven't ever bought a humidifier before lol my mom gave it to me.

I will definitely grab a different hygro.
Thanks for all the help and I'll let ya'll know how it works:D
Click to expand...

This is the one I have http://www.walmart.com/ip/16914672?...1=g&wl2=&wl3=13695686710&wl4=&wl5=pla&veh=sem. It works really well and has three diff settings (low, med, high). I'm pretty sure every brand will say whether it's cool mist or warm mist.
 
A few thoughts:
- Your hygrometer is not working. Start by replacing it (others were right about this and appears you're on it).

- Don't rely on outdoor relative humidity as an indicator of what indoors should be. Relative humidity is "relative" to temperature; or how much moisture vapor air can hold at a given temperature. The indoor to outdoor temperature differential makes a huge difference. For example - when 30 degree outside air with 60% relative humidity is heated to 70 degrees the relative humidity drops to about 14%. If you are measuring temperature in an 85 degree basking spot then humidity would be about 8%.

- Since you indicated your enclosure is near a vent that means you have probably have a forced air system in your house. If this is the case air is mixed throughout the house so don't waste your time trying to increase relative humidity in the room. Cover a few sides of the enclosure and/or use a cool mist humidifier directed into the enclosure.

- Don't stress about getting humidity too high during the winter.

Good luck!
 
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