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Thread: Required Humidity?

  1. #1

    Default Required Humidity?

    Hi everyone!

    My name is Frances and I am new to this forum. I recently bought an Argentine B/W Tegu nearly a week ago from a reptile expo in my hometown. I'm not quite exactly sure of its gender but it is two weeks old.

    I currently house it in a 10 gallon tank and plan on moving it to a bigger tank in a few weeks. The type of bedding I use is orchid bark. I also have a 18 inch florescent UV light that I keep on while the sun comes up and a basking light for the day and a infrared light that I put on at night.

    I guess my question is how high is the humidity suppose to be? I spray the tank a few times a day and also soak the orchid bark because it tends to dry up quick. The humidity gauge that I have also says the humidity is at 20 which is dessert humidity.

    Is this where it's suppose to be? If not, how do I get it up to be where it's suppose to be?

    Thank you for your help in advance and I look forward to getting to know everyone!

    Have a good day!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Central FL
    Posts
    4,349

    Default

    Welcome to the forum! I'll try to address a few of your concerns

    "I currently house it in a 10 gallon tank and plan on moving it to a bigger tank in a few weeks."
    I think the 10 gallon is part of the problem. The lights will dry that out quickly. A 10 gal is too small to allow a good range of hot and cool zones. So everything ends up hot. I would recommend a 30 long for hatchlings as a minimum.

    "The type of bedding I use is orchid bark."
    Sounds good so far...

    "I also have a 18 inch florescent UV light that I keep on while the sun comes up and a basking light for the day and a infrared light that I put on at night."
    The 18" UV needs to be hung inside the cage so that it does not have a screen barrier. If it is on top of the cage and on top of a screen lid, very little UVB is actually getting through. I use kitchen light fixtures from Home depot with screw holes in the back. Then I use coat hanger wire to fashion a hook. This can be hung off the side of the tank so that the UV bulb is inside the cage and closer to the lizard. You don't need heat at night unless your house is getting into the 60's in the summer. If that's the case, I'm coming to your house to sleep. just kidding. It's just really hot here right now. Any light/heat source will just dry everything up even more.

    "I guess my question is how high is the humidity suppose to be? I spray the tank a few times a day and also soak the orchid bark because it tends to dry up quick. The humidity gauge that I have also says the humidity is at 20 which is dessert humidity."
    Tegus need humidity that is a minimum of 60%, with 70-80% being the preferred range. There are a few ways to accomplish this. Make sure the cage is not in the way of A/C or fan drafts which will dry out the cage. A larger enclosure with lights on one side will help. When I mist, I get the cage really wet so that the substrate is soaked for a while. You may have to turn the bark so it doesn't stay wet underneath and mold. You can cover half of the screen cage with saran wrap, foil, or a damp towel to hold in humidity that would otherwise escape. You can also make a humid hide by placing damp sphagnum moss in the hide. I don't usually have a humidity issue because I live in FL, so others may have some different ideas.

    You didn't say what the temps were. I use a digital thermometer that also measures humidity. I bought it at Wal-Mart for about $12. There is a little probe on a wire that measures temp. The whole unit has to go into the cage to measure humidity. I've also bought some little round gauges that are ZooMed brand and have temp on one side and humidity on the other. They are the only ones I have found to be fairly accurate. Others gave me wacky temp readings, etc.
    Laura R (FL)
    1.0.0 Colombian Tegu
    1.4.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
    1.2.0 Red Tegu
    1.2.0 B/WxRed Tegu
    1.0.0 Green Ameiva (yet another teiid)
    7 other lizards
    1 little gator
    3 FL box turtle
    1 Sulcata tortoise
    16 snakes
    5 fuzzy pets
    4 little frogs
    a bunch of creepy bugs
    and a partridge in a pear tree

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