huh well I will change the bedding can I use the wood shaveings for them? I really do not want too use sand or dirt so what would you use besides the dirt and sand?

wood shavings aren't good either, if you don't want to use dirt you can just use the Aspen

The best thing for the laying area is soil and sand Nancy in a 70/30 mix (soil to sand). The rest of the enclosure can be aspen though.
The best place to find aspen in the UK is on Ebay. Make sure you get the finely shredded aspen.

Danny

you have choices there is hemp in the form of hemcore and auboise that is most commonly used in the uk along with soil/sand mix, i don't do 50/50 i do 70/30. You will find most horse suppliers sell auboise or hemcore both are fine. Aspen you can get from ebay you can get a bulk bag that isn't listed at the moment which is what i get, it is more expensive than the hemp but i prefer it. here is a link to it on ebay but if you check everyday they do a bigger bag which works out cheaper.
http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.d...en+bedding

Thanks everyone - I went out today and bought top soil and play sand so will use that for a laying area - how deep should it be?

I had a quick look on ebay and couldn't find any Aspen yet but will keep looking. There was one bag on yesterday but it looked rather like a by-product of something rather than specifically prepared for reptiles so I wasn't sure. Will just keep an eye out I did wonder what hemp was, I'd heard people mention it but never seen it myself. I was using calcium reptile sand (but only in a very small area) and reptile bark as that was what I'd been recommended to use but now I'm going to re-do the tort table properly. It's amazing how much incorrect info there is about there about tortoise care. I really thought I'd made an effort to research it all but I clearly missed things. I wish I'd found this forum sooner - thanks so much for all your help everyone.

This post was last modified: 04-06-2008 04:58 AM by ukphd.

For your female Nancy at least 10 inches for the laying area, with 12 inches being the best.
Aspen does kind of look like a by-producy Nancy. It looks all chewed up and thats what you want.

Danny

For your female Nancy at least 10 inches for the laying area, with 12 inches being the best.
Aspen does kind of look like a by-producy Nancy. It looks all chewed up and thats what you want.

Danny

Thanks again

ukphd

aspen:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...:IT&ih=008

hemp (similar to aspen):
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hemp-Bedding-950g-...m153.l1262

Thanks! That listing must have gone up today as it wasn't there when I checked over the weekend (or I'm just stupid and I missed it!).
Off to order it now!

oh just had a thought - should the soil/sand area be regularly sprayed with water or anything? I've read that it needs to be slightly damp but I also read somewhere else that it wasn't necessary.

This post was last modified: 04-07-2008 06:21 AM by ukphd.

ukphd, I have use hemp before it works fine. and I kept my laying area moist as the dirt needs to hold together but not be drippy wet. Moisture is needed, I mixed water into the substrate to keep it dampend. I found spraying the top only kept the top damp and when my female dug the dirt just fell back into the hole and she didn't lay. When I moisend all of the dirt. She dug her hole and Bingo Eggs.

Ah ok - so, sorry to sound stupid, but does that mean you regularly mix the dirt around whilst spraying or do you mean you do that before you put it in and then spray the top to keep it moist? or neither!

I personally mixed it with the water after I placed it in the nesting area. I mixed the dirt and play sand then added water to it and mixed it, like a cake mix, until it was all damp. Then I would mist the top, every 4 or 5 days I would use a trowel (hand shovel) or a large spoon and check it a few inches down to make sure it’s still damp. Continually misting just the top will after a while allow the rest to dry out. Just remember when she digs down that dirt has to be damp too and able to hold up and not cave in or crumble into her laying hole.
And Ukphd, no question ever made anyone look or sound stupid. It is the way we learn. Keep those questions coming, and we will all keep learning.