Humidity issues

[Durpy the Dragon]

New time owners here, had a couple questions that I hoped to get answered. we have tried everything under the sun and can’t get my little dragons cage set-up right.

First: I believe we got a Rankins dragon from petsmart about a month ago. I posted a couple pictures of him/her. Just wanted to clarify that he was that type because they have different needs than a regular bigger beardie.

Second: we first had a 20 gal tank, everything appeared to be functioning all correct. We then upgraded to a 40 gal tank, we got a longer uvb light so that it covered about half the tank. The temperatures we can keep pretty consistent but the dang humidity is our issue. We cant get it to be over 30% and it always gets to and stays at 25%- 28% humidity. I know it has to be higher than that. We have tried placing the water bowl by the lights, a shallow dish and litttle more deeper dish but that never helped. We also placed foil over half the tank to try to keep it contained inside the enclosure but that also hasn’t worked. We have tried consistently misting the cage and with all these efforts nothing is working! Can anyone please give us some insight or ideas to help raise and keep the humidity in the enclosure?

Also, while the temperatures are correct, he/she tends to spend a lot of time on the cool side and not enough time basking. He also runs back and forth over his stick and trees from one side of glass to the other and will often glass surf .

 

[hdochow]

it's best to get your lights set up correctly first. your profile says you have a T8 UVB. that's going to need to be inside the enclosure, not on top of the screen, at a distance of 6-8 inches. they are not strong enough to go through a screen

what basking bulb do you have? it's good you are using a digital probe thermometer. the temp guns can be off depending on what they are reading off of. how old is your dragon? this will determine the temp needed at the basking spot.

how are you getting your humidity levels? a digital probe hygrometer is best for this, placed in the center back of the enclosure.

do you have colored lights or is that just how the pictures look? no red/blue/colored lights. they are bad for the eyes. they need clear bright basking bulbs and the uvb. no lights at all at night.

i'm not familiar with rankins, but there should be others that will chime in. above covers the basics at least.

 

[Durpy the Dragon]

Thank you for your response!

I honestly don’t know how old it is. Petsmart had literally no information to pass on about the little dragon but it is about 8 to 9 inches nose to tail.

We do have the uvb light hanging from inside the cage but the heat emitter, the basking light, and heat light are all above on top the screen.

The only colored bulb we have is the red one.
It’s a reptizoo 100W basking light. It came with a starter kit for bearded dragons from petsmart.
It also came with a double dome light fixture that we’re using for the red bulb and basking light.

I haven’t seen anything else but red and blue for heat bulbs.

It’s completely dark at night time for him.

Right now the only thing we’re trying to create and keep humidity in the cage misting the cage in the morning and a few times every couple hours. We have the shallow water dish under the heated lights and foil around the lighted half to try to keep any humidity in there. I do have the hydrometer in middle but on the side of the cage so we can see it easier but I will definitely try moving it in the back middle to try to get a more accurate reading of it.

 

[hdochow]

ok i was looking at your picture too. does the UVB fixture have a plastic cover on the bottom? if so take it off because it is blocking the rays. i was wondering about where it was at because your profile said 16-18 so that would make it have to be on top of the screen. or is that a typo. (i asked that before i looked at all your photos.)

definitely get rid of the red bulb. those starter kits are for making a profit, not proper beardie care. the person we rescued sir henry from, and a ton of others on here, bought them because they thought they were what was needed. those kits do more harm than good.

i'm not sure if the reptizoo basking bulb is good brand. i have a zoo med, but only use a 50W because i have a 120 gallon solid top enclosure so it takes less wattage to get the right temps

is your hygrometer a digital probe? if not, i can give you a link to one.

if you see karrieree pop on here, she's the best as far as setting up lighting and temps, and they can play into humidity issues. she can help with the humidity itself too. i don't know that much about it because i've never had humidity issues.

 

[Durpy the Dragon]

Yes, I have comes to find that out that the starter kits are a bunch of BS.

We do have a plastic cover over the light. We will be taking that off for sure in the morning time. And we have two hydrometers in the enclosure that are both digital.

I’ll also try getting a half solid top and a different not red light for my little dragon.

I’ll have to keep an eye out for that name or just search for her maybe. Thank you again for your help.

 

[hdochow]

good for the plastic cover. i've never had one myself, i've got a custom built enclosure. but i've seen plenty of people on here that have had them and were advised to remove them. karrieree's on almost all the time, but i'll tag her for you

@KarrieRee

 

[KarrieRee]

good for the plastic cover. i've never had one myself, i've got a custom built enclosure. but i've seen plenty of people on here that have had them and were advised to remove them. karrieree's on almost all the time, but i'll tag her for you

@KarrieRee

Your using a 20 gallon tank at the moment? And the UVB is a T 8 so distance posted above is correct directly over him - the hygrometer is one w/ a probe or just a digital? I would get a probe one place the probe on the back center wall of the tank - optimal humidity is 40-50% nothing under 20 and over 70%- right now I am dealing w/ humidity issues as well I have recently replaced the humidifier in my room - cant get Hiccups tank over 18% and Blazes is at 20% now during the day - it goes up at night - but as soon as the lights go on it drops - When you move him over to a bigger tank I would recommend upgrading the UVB to a T 5 -- there are 3 brands we recommend on this forum so if you need them or want them please ask and we can post them for you -- if you need heat at night please get a CHE - ceramic heat emitter - you want ambient temps at night 65-75 -- the CHE needs a dome w / a ceramic socket

 

[Durpy the Dragon]

We have him in a 40 gal tank right now. It’s positioned in the middle of the hot side but it is a T8. We couldn’t have find a T5 light bulb here in town.

We have that same issue! His tank will get 35% at night with lights off but as soon we turn on the lights it just always stays at 25-27%. We can’t get it above 30% during the day. I’m not entirely sure how that is effectiving him at this point but he glass surfs a few times a day.

I’ve heard that Rankins need more humidity than the average bearded dragon, is this true??

We do have a ceramic heat emitter. I just recently was informed that the red heat bulb shouldn’t be colored so we are replacing that today and i am stumped on getting the humidity at right levels. Might try to get a different lid to try to keep it in but I don’t know

 

[KarrieRee]

We have him in a 40 gal tank right now. It’s positioned in the middle of the hot side but it is a T8. We couldn’t have find a T5 light bulb here in town.

We have that same issue! His tank will get 35% at night with lights off but as soon we turn on the lights it just always stays at 25-27%. We can’t get it above 30% during the day. I’m not entirely sure how that is effectiving him at this point but he glass surfs a few times a day.

I’ve heard that Rankins need more humidity than the average bearded dragon, is this true??

We do have a ceramic heat emitter. I just recently was informed that the red heat bulb shouldn’t be colored so we are replacing that today and i am stumped on getting the humidity at right levels. Might try to get a different lid to try to keep it in but I don’t know

Your good w / the 25-27% level and I just checked mine and they are up to 21% today so that is good -- as far as the Rankins needing more humidity I do not know - but we can ask @AHBD she would know- I would get a T 5 fixture those can be ordered on line - T 8's and T 5's are different in strength and bulbs are different - if you need websites I can post them for you -- please do not use the red bulb anymore --

 

[Durpy the Dragon]

When you say red bulb does that include infrared bulbs? I was just told that it’s infrared so no sure if that makes any difference. When we looked about a month ago we could not t5 but we did find one today so that’s good .

 

[KarrieRee]

When you say red bulb does that include infrared bulbs? I was just told that it’s infrared so no sure if that makes any difference. When we looked about a month ago we could not t5 but we did find one today so that’s good .

If the bulb is colored its not good red blue black etc --- what did you find for the T 5?

 

[AHBD]

Hi Durpy, was the dragon sold to you as a Rankin's ? Because they are way more rare and wouldn't just be sold as a regular beardie. Can you post a few pics of his entire body from above to show his back pattern ?

 

[Durpy the Dragon]

Hi Durpy, was the dragon sold to you as a Rankin's ? Because they are way more rare and wouldn't just be sold as a regular beardie. Can you post a few pics of his entire body from above to show his back pattern ?

No the tag just said bearded dragon at petsmart but when I was looking at pictures online to try to find out what type he was and they looked almost identical to the Rankins. I could be very wrong was hoping someone could tell me for sure.

 

[AHBD]

He's a normal dragon, not Rankin's. Looks nice + healthy !

 

[Durpy the Dragon]

are you serious!? It’s looks just like a Rankins lol it’s got the bow ties down his back and all. Learn something new everyday