I was wondering what a good substrate was for a hermans tortoise could someone tell me?

This post was last modified: 08-21-2007 02:32 PM by Rees2.

I use bed a beast and a sand mixture. I keep one area a little damp to give a area of humidity. Ive read things about having a humid hide helps with pyrimiding.

Maybe try some moist coconut husk or moist peat moss with some reptile safe sand. Hope that helps.

I am in agreement with Tracy, I use a mixture of top soil, play sand, and bed a beast for all my torts and turts. Except the torts get timothy at one end and I mist the other end every morning.

well you dont need to use moist substrates AT all.
you can just use aspen or hemcore full-time...
or you can use a playsand and soil mixture.
Let it dry out.
you cannot use moist substrate for hermanns tortoise cuz they come from med areas where its usually dry all the time.

You can get bed-a-beast (coconut husk) in blocks or in bags ready to pour into the enclosure. What I do is I buy the blocks and then when they come out of the bucket I throw it into the turtle pool to dry out, along with the soil and sand. That way you have dry substrate to put in the tort pens. As for my boxies they get it right out the bucket.

ALSO! do NOT i repeat DO NOT! use reptile sand, cali-sand..or similars.
only use PLAYSAND. even then it needs to be mixed with Soil or something.
Pete moss cant be used either it can cause problems.

and about the humidity i mentioned, they need heat and humidity but not lots of hit.
a pot hide or half pot hide burried into the substrates a lil' bit, sprinkle a small amount of water into the hide area and it will keep up humidity within the hide thats all they really need.

The best substrate is playsand/topsoil (50/50 ratio) with an area of hemp - hermanns love it.

Mist the topsoil/playsand to avoid it drying out, and it is akin to their natural environments.

Tamie

Would it be ok to just use bed a beast?

Yes it would Rees