The good Humidity fight

[Commanderday]

Hello everyone. I'm just about where I want my husbandry, with one huge exception. The *darn HUMIDITY! Small back story if this is your first read of my posts. Went through a new local pet shop to support our local economy. I ask for a Northern BTS, was ready for a "desert" setup, got an Indo. With all that being said I kept the Bluey and over the past month have been making very expensive adjustments. The most recent was the Mist King. I went with the best reviewed and what to me looked like the most high-tech mister. This is not the issue it works amazingly well. Side note another small battle was my heat. I live in Boise, ID (a very dry state) and is starting to cool down a little bit. I did have a 100 watt basking bulb, however; after the slight temp drops I said it was not performing to my satisfaction anymore. I said to hell with this and bought a 150 watt the other day. So with the old bulb and my mist king the humidity has been around 50-60% from what I could tell. With the new bulb, well *darn. Temps are setting at about 90 degrees fahrenheit on the hot end. I assume with basking rock I have (not a heat rock) is above that. Humidity this morning dropped to 50%. I was like "NOOOOOOOOO!". My Mist King is set up to go off twice a day. Once at 7:40 am and 7:40 pm, (dusk and dawn) for approximately 30 second intervals. The only two other options I can think of are one, set up the Mist King more frequently throughout the day. Two, cover my screen top in some way around the lighting to keep the moisture in. Only thing I could come up with is tin foil. Have not tried it yet though. Another thought while I type is I am using a zoo med dual dial type temp and humidity gauge. Honestly I'm not one hundred percent on the accuracy. If anyone has the slightest suggestion or advice at this point I would be forever grateful.

[Saber]

Screen top is your problem, you really need to cover it well or get rid of it. I bet you will have way better luck just doing that.

[Commanderday]

Hey thanks for the reply. His cage is temporary for now, I will be building him a custom enclosure soon. In the mean time I will cover it with whatever I can find that works. Thank yo for the advice.

[Scincoides]

Adding a larger water bowl to the enclosure, and moving it closer to the warm end can help a ton as well. Definitely restrict ventilation on the screen though that will help.

[donkeybuff]

Cypress mulch does a great job of holding humidity; I highly recommend it as substrate. Paired with a MistKing, it'll help hold that water for longer. I also like to throw in a big chunk of moist sphagnum moss with my indo. It soaks up a ton of water and really raises the humidity, and he's always digging around in it.

[Dakota]

I've actually had a hard time keeping humidity down this year. It rains in my enclosures! With the humidity ranging 40-60% ambient in the skink room, their enclosures stay at a constant 80%+. I offer low ventilation, a large water bowl, and a gallon or two of sphagnum moss per tub. I have about 100 holes drilled on the sides and on the top. Hope this helps.

[Commanderday]

Hey thanks again everyone! Right now I am using Repti Bark with about half a bag of Zilla terrarium moss scatter in the enclosure on top. I will have to give the Cypress Mulch a try though as the bark does not hold moisture very well. I have covered the screen top around the lighting and reprogrammed the Mist King to go off more frequently through out the day. So far it has improved but still not the range I would like. Will also be trying the larger water bowl on the hot end. Thank you everyone!

[jgodman1011]

having a terrible time with my humidity! i have a large water bowl closer to the hot side and i mist the cypress mulch at least 2x a day, i looked yesterday and it was back down to 20%!! going to try the moss, but will anything else help KEEP it up? spraying helps but it drops fairly quickly, i have an IJ and was told 60% humidity was best, is that the case?
Thanks

[skinks101]

Sphagnum moss is wonderful, I usually get mine at Lowes for around $3 in a large bag. I used about 1 bag for a 3 foot cage.
Here is what the bag looks like: