Humidity and vivarium fans?

[Dackall]

Hi again people!

I've posted on here before about Leopard Gecko humidity, and received advice that between 40-60% is a perfectly fine range. However, I've noticed that there is the tiniest amount of moisture on my geckos nose. I'm not sure if this is normal, it's the smallest amount you can imagine but slightly more than I would expect from the saliva.

Because of this I'm planning on taking her to the vet to get her chest listened to. Otherwise she is in perfect health, eating normally, defecating, running around all over the show and is generally a perfect animal (and an amazing pet).

I've struggled to get her enclosure lower than 50, switching over to tile, removing plants and drilling holes on the side to increase airflow, a dehumidifier... I'm running out of ideas. With the sliding doors open (wooden viv) the humidity range is just fine, but when they close they slowly creep up to around 55%.

I was wondering if anyone has tried the vivarium fans like these. As it is clearly an airflow problem at this point. I'm on the coast of southern England which is very humid anyway and my room sits around 50-60 year round.

Any feedback would be useful. As I said, she is perfectly healthy and seems very happy so I'm not entirely sure if she is coming down with a respiratory infection or not, but that moisture does concern me.

Many thanks,

Jack

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

I've struggled to get her enclosure lower than 50, switching over to tile, removing plants and drilling holes on the side to increase airflow, a dehumidifier... I'm running out of ideas. With the sliding doors open (wooden viv) the humidity range is just fine, but when they close they slowly creep up to around 55%.

I was wondering if anyone has tried the vivarium fans like these. As it is clearly an airflow problem at this point. I'm on the coast of southern England which is very humid anyway and my room sits around 50-60 year round.

Any feedback would be useful. As I said, she is perfectly healthy and seems very happy so I'm not entirely sure if she is coming down with a respiratory infection or not, but that moisture does concern me.

Hi Jack ~

I really don't think ambient humidity of 55% is harmful to leos at all. My leo's humidity nearly reaches that at times. She's quite healthy.

You may be overthinking things.

• Is your leo sneezing?
• Is the ventilation in your wooden vivarium high on the warm end and low on the cool end? That should allow for decent airflow.
• Have you tried filling a clean sock with uncooked rice to lower humidity?

 

[Dackall]

Hi Jack ~

I really don't think ambient humidity of 55% is harmful to leos at all. My leo's humidity nearly reaches that at times. She's quite healthy.

You may be overthinking things.

• Is your leo sneezing?
• Is the ventilation in your wooden vivarium high on the warm end and low on the cool end? That should allow for decent airflow.
• Have you tried filling a clean sock with uncooked rice to lower humidity?

Hi Elizabeth!

Thanks for the response. I do tend to panic at the first sign of an issue, this is true, I'm just very aware there are a few big problems that can be easily overlooked. The issue is her humidity is 55% about 60% of the time. And it's very, very rarely below 40%.

• She is not sneezing
• Not really, it's one of the vivexotic ones that has 3 vents in a 'V' shape. I have added extra ventilation myself which is helping a little bit I believe.
• No I have not, I'll try that next. There is a fairly powerful dehumidifier in the room though, so much so that it's affecting my tropical tanks!

Thanks for the ideas and reassurance, I just want to do everything I can for her.

 

[acpart]

In the summer in New England, my non-airconditioned living (gecko) room gets quite hot and extremely humid. Everyone does fine.

Aliza