When my babies were first hatched, and for the first few years of their life, Dr. Jenkins (the local herp. vet) had me use regular news paper so that the babies would not consume anything but their greens. Also he had me remove all of their poop immediately and with the paper it made it very easy. He explained that with paper you change it daily (and recycle it of course... i live is sandiego:0) that way there is little to no chance of any bacteria to build up. Also I am assuming he had me do it that way because mine are Ca. desert tortoises and need little to no humidity. Of couse a nice place to hide on the cool end of the enclosure. And sun bathing for at least a few hours a day

My hermann's is now 2,7" and I have him on aspen & top soil. half the enclosure has aspen (where he is fed) and the other half has soil (were he sleeps & basks). The soil is alot deeper then the aspen, so he can burrow for the night.
I also planted some weeds on that side to help hold in the moisture.
I guess if you soak him everyday, he'll do just fine on aspen alone.

well I have it set up on bed-a-beast/sand... but i have extra aspen now and was trying to figure out who i could use it for !LOL!

Well you could always do one area aspen and the other the soil mix. I have another young male Hermanns set up that way. Just push all the soil to one side and throw some aspen in one side.

Remember Eli's setup? Aspen on one end, moss and soil mix on the other end and down one side. (I grew grass down that side for him)

This post was last modified: 03-17-2008 04:33 PM by JustAnja.

yep, what Anja said. This is also what I do. helps with cleaning to because the tort will poo and pee near the food & water 99% of the time.

good idea!