# Safe mulch?



## Neal

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me if the kind of mulch I use in my garden would be safe to use in the tortoise pen.

All the information on the bag is 100% organic, and 100% virgin wood. I've never heard of virgin wood, but was wondering if anyone else knew if it would be OK to use. It is milled finely like milled peat moss, there are some wood chunks in there about 1 inch long, but only 1/4 inch thick. Unfortunatley thats all the info I can get from the bag it comes in. Any help would be great!
Thanks
Neal


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## Kristina

Virgin wood means pretty much that it is ground up bits of tree tops, branches, and left over wood from logging. It means that it is not ground up bits of treated or recycled wood.

Does it say if it has pine in it? Most people stick to cypress mulch, because it holds humidity well without rotting and is non toxic to torts. I would be careful if it does not have a list of ingredients on the bag - pine is toxic to reptiles, and it could cause you major problems. 

I would look for cypress mulch and be safe.


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## Tropical Torts

Listen to Kristina cypress mulch is your best bet. Plus it is very inexpensive, I think it is around $1.50 at Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowes; not sure which ones cheapest. Good Luck!


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## Tom

The only way to really know is to boldly go where no man (or his tortoise) has gone before. It might be fine or it might have some bad elements mixed in there. I've been using this one from Lowes for a couple of years in closed spaces with a multitude of reptiles, and have had no problems. Its ingredients are listed as "Forrest Products".

http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-13520.html


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## kimber_lee_314

I bought some of this mulch - listed in the other thread (on Tom's advice) and it's great. Good luck! Thanks Tom!


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## Neal

I called the nursery and they said it includes mostly pine and some fir...so we won't be using that in their enclosure. Just curious though, how does it harm reptiles? Is it harmful if injested or with skin contact or both? A few years back my mother in law found a greek tortoise in her yard and asked us to take it in. The only place we could put it was in our garden full of this type of mulch. It stayed that way for a couple of years without any problems. (We gave it away to a friend)

Tom - thanks for the suggestion, I'll be headed to Lowes tomarrow to look for a couple of bags. 
Thanks for everyones input.
Neal


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## Maggie Cummings

ihaveaquestion3 said:


> I called the nursery and they said it includes mostly pine and some fir...so we won't be using that in their enclosure. Just curious though, how does it harm reptiles? Is it harmful if injested or with skin contact or both? A few years back my mother in law found a greek tortoise in her yard and asked us to take it in. The only place we could put it was in our garden full of this type of mulch. It stayed that way for a couple of years without any problems. (We gave it away to a friend)
> 
> Tom - thanks for the suggestion, I'll be headed to Lowes tomarrow to look for a couple of bags.
> Thanks for everyones input.
> Neal



Pine has some sort of toxins in it and I have personal experience with it blinding a young Sulcata that I had. So frankly I don't exactly know how or why but I do know that I used pine mulch as a substrate I noticed it smelled really strong and the end result was one dead yearling and Tony Stewart had 2 layers of his corneas burned off. I spent a lot of money at the Vets and the end result was that he was blind in one eye with diminished sight in the other. But the awful part was how much pain he was in. He would drool and his eyes just ran fluid and they looked horrible, swelled up and red, just awful... I will try to find the pictures later. But right now I'm waiting for a contractor to come and look at my yard and give me an estimate on a fence for Bob. I will be SO glad when he is contained safely. Plus I will have better naps, he always escaped while I was napping, the jerk. But I will start another thread with pictures of Tony Stewart's eyes so watch for it...


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## Tom

Outdoors, in a yard, I would guess there would be enough ventilation that fumes would never build up to a toxic level. Also the elements outside would tend to purge the pine of its fumes pretty quickly. 

Indoors in a container of some sort, would be a different story. In most forms, pine isn't THAT toxic, but its certainly not good for them.

I'm curious to see what Maggies situation was. I love learning new stuff.


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## Neal

Cypress mulch apparently is not sold anywhere but pet stores here in AZ. I couldn't find any of the mulch that Tom suggested either. I picked up some of the cypress from a reptile store here, and not sure if I like the coloring of it but we'll see...it's all about whats good for the tortoises. The soil is so bad here I had to put something on it. My stars seemed thrilled that I put it down and now the enclosure is done except for some planting. As soon as I figure out how to post some pictures on here you can all have a look.


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## RussianRookie

I use the same exact stuff Tom does. i think it would be nice to try a 50% Bark 50% topsoil mix with this.


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