Misting--post vet visit update

[Susann]

I am fighting a never ending battle with humidity--or rather, a lack thereof. As much as I enjoy my pumped up hand muscles, I am quite done with spraying down five Merauke tanks every day, all year round, with a spray bottle!

Has anyone, or IS anyone here using any kind of misting system?
Opinions?
Thoughts?
Recommendations?

So far I am looking towards a system from these guys:
http://www.reptilebasics.com/misting-systems

[Spindown]

what kind of top do you have? If it is a screen lid, I have found putting a wet towel on top of most of the lid helps keep humidity in. OF course, leave some open for ventilation, but its nice because you can always move some of the towel off if its too much humidity etc.
Ghetto, but it works!

[Susann]

All my skinks are in Showcase cages

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Substrate, I use Repti Bark or Cypress mulch.

[Musoke]

I find that misting with a spray bottle doesn't have a long lasting result... with my guys what I do is use a mix of exo terra plantation soil and and wood chips- the plantation soil really holds moisture! Once every month or so I wash their rocks and hides that they normally dirty up and I put a pitcher of warm water in their substrate to freshen it up and keep it humid. Also you could put sphagnum moss in their hides and keep a large water dish. But mostly, when it comes to healthy scales the moisture in the substrate is the most important!

As for the misting machines ... I'd try substrate first personally.

I LOVE your meraukes, I'm still so excited for you when I think about them!! I'm so jealous.

[Jeff]

I have never used a misting system, so I can't help with that.

I have never had any problems with my meraukes due to low humidity though. I live in the Arizona desert which has extremely low humidity most of the year. Surprisingly enough, my northerns seem to be more affected by low humidity than the meraukes are. None of them have any trouble shedding, but the northerns tend to get dry belly scales if I allow their substrate to dry out. As long as I mist/pour some water on the substrate once or twice a week, they have no problem at all. This only raises the ambient humidity for a couple hours, so I don't think that matters too much to them as far as health goes. It just keeps the substrate moist enough that it doesn't "suck" the moisture out of the skinks. The only time the meraukes have higher ambient humidity is when it naturally occurs in late July-August, and when I try to simulate a "wet" season for them. I do believe that their breeding cycle is directly related to fluctuations in humidity, so you will need some way to give them variation throughout the year. I think a mist system would be the perfect way to do that.

If I had only one species, I would definitely try a mister. The only reason I don't use one now to manipulate the humidity (seasons) is because I have all of my skinks in a small room, and most of them require low humidity to do well. A mister would have a negative affect on the animals that need to be kept dry.

Let us know how it works for you!

[Karen]

I just put a sponge in a suction cup thing on the hot side. I dampen the sponge whenever it gets dry and so far that has helped keep humidity up. I'm not sure how it would work in your enclosures; I have a screen top tank and Sylvia is still on Astroturf since she was being medicated. It's pretty cheap to try out first to see if it might do the job rather than pay for a misting system.

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[Katrina]

I've found the same as Jeff - my place gets dry and I've never had a problem with the Meraukes. Mine are on cypress and they shed just fine, no dry scales.

I do find that the moisture in the substrate matters more than the moisture in the air - I've found misting to be pretty ineffective. Thicker cypress and keeping is moister does help. I haven't bothered with a mister or anything further because I don't see a need, at least not for my climate.

[Zach]

Right, misting only lasts minutes unless you really soaked something that would absorb it...keep a fairly deep large water bowl filled up -- that has always kept my humidity in check. Those square pyrex deep casserole dishes are perfect.

Good luck!

[Susann]

What I'm really hoping to accomplish is raising the humidity in the tank enough that the substrate doesn't dry out so fast. So maybe I'd only need to spray the substrate down a couple of times a week, and in between, the mister would keep the moisture in the substrate as well as raise humidity in the air.
You think no? Won't work?

The thing is, there's this weird thing going on with their (only talking Jazz and Maddie at this point) fingers/toes.... I need to get some good pictures, but short version is: it's like the nail/claw is drying up, and after a few sheds, falling off. It like shrivels up at the base, looses its curve to where it's really thin and just sticks straight out from the finger/toe. It affects their scales on the top of the fingers/toes as well, and a couple of digits have been lost.
I promise to get pictures up as soon as life calms down for a second!

BUT. I can not figure any other cause for this, than that they are too dry. Spraying down the substrate (and I mean SPRAYING; I usually empty a whole 24 oz spray bottle in each tank! Every to every other day.) has helped a bunch, but that's a lot of spraying! When I skip a day, the substrate is like KINDLING! Bone dry.
If anybody recognizes these symptoms and thinks it's something else, PLEASE enlighten me!

Even if the problem isn't humidity, does anybody see any cons to the mister?

[Katrina]

I don't see any reasons not to try the mister. They can handle high humidity, cypress won't mould like other substrates... so I don't see any reason not to try it and see if it helps.

If that doesn't work, there is always that article floating around about fungal problems & toe loss - you could look into that.

[Jeff]

A mister should work fine. It is just possible that there are other options as well. I have never had toe issues so can't really address possible causes, but as far as dry substrate, have you tried just "pouring" water onto it? If the substrate is really that dry it will absorb the water pretty quickly. You just need to figure out how much it will absorb so that you don't pour in more than it can handle creating standing water. Of course with your plastic cages, that probably wouldn't actually hurt anything. It only takes seconds to pour in 24 OZ. Of water, and no squeezing required.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

http://exo-terra.com/en/products/monsoon_rs400.php
http://exo-terra.com/en/products/mister.php
http://exo-terra.com/en/products/fogger.php
http://exo-terra.com/en/products/waterfall.php

[Susann]

have you tried just "pouring" water onto it? It only takes seconds to pour in 24 OZ. Of water, and no squeezing required.

I actually haven't tried pouring the water in; I have ReptiBark right now, and it's been a struggle learning where to spray more and where less, because where water has pooled I've seen mold pop up in just a few days. It's been a pain in the bark! I'm going back to Cypress mulch, especially now that I know that it doesn't mold like the bark--thanks Katrina!

I appreciate all the suggestions, keep 'em coming. If I can save money with another way then that would be great. I just hate feeling like I'm doing something wrong, and I've really racked my brain, and read everything I can find, trying to figure out what they need that I'm not giving them! If it was just one of them, it could just be a fluke, both of them pretty much rules flukes out. But if I start seeing this on any one of the new guys ....I really don't know what I'd do. Why I'm trying to come up with a solution before that happens!

Thanks for all the help!

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

I was thinking about doing a 75%/25% cypress mulch to sphagnum moss substrate mix.

[Susann]

I was thinking about doing a 75%/25% cypress mulch to sphagnum moss substrate mix.

There's an idea!

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

That along with the waterfall, fogger, mister, and this http://exo-terra.com/en/products/tree_fern_panels.php. I should have atleast 50% humidity.

[Susann]

Got Jazz out for a photo shoot, got an awesome tongue-shot, but MAN he was hyper! Would NOT be still.
I'll start here by putting up these photos of his feet, see if anyone has any ideas. Do you guys think this could be a moisture-issue?

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[Fatal_S]

Any chance the problem could be the other way with it being too much moisture causing scales to rot?

[Karen]

Ouch... that doesn't look good. Have they had any issues with their bellies?

[Linnea]

i think that looks more like rot/fungus than it being dry. if it was dry it wouldnt turn yellowish, these are very yellowish and do not seem dry. compare it to fungus infections in nails in humans (nagelsvamp, swedish).