exo terra desert sand

[Tort25]

I heard from a recent garden state tortoise video that exo terra desert sand is good for dessert dwelling species like russian is this true and shuld I use exo terra desert sand along with rocks to mimic the Natural environment of a Russian tortoise?

 

[Tom]

I heard from a recent garden state tortoise video that exo terra desert sand is good for dessert dwelling species like russian is this true and shuld I use exo terra desert sand along with rocks to mimic the Natural environment of a Russian tortoise?

No absolutely terrible advice and dead wrong. DEAD wrong, as in it could make your tortoise dead. Sand is a huge impaction risk and also a skin and eye irritant and it should never be used as tortoise substrate. Russian tortoises aren't walking around on sand in the wild, and its also too dry, so it makes humidity in an indoor enclosure unnaturally dry.

Read this for the correct care info:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

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Questions are welcome.

 

[Tort25]

No absolutely terrible advice and dead wrong. DEAD wrong, as in it could make your tortoise dead. Sand is a huge impaction risk and also a skin and eye irritant and it should never be used as tortoise substrate. Russian tortoises aren't walking around on sand in the wild, and its also too dry, so it makes humidity in an indoor enclosure unnaturally dry.

Read this for the correct care info:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

Questions are welcome.

So got the product wrong it's actually exo terra stone desert dose that make a difference?

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

So got the product wrong it's actually exo terra stone desert dose that make a difference?

It's still a clay/sand mix. Also, it's used for terrarium hardscaping (hardens when dry).

While such substrates are somewhat close to natural habitat soils but due to differences in diet/temperature/exercise amount and other factors, they pose an impaction risk in captivity.

 

[Tom]

So got the product wrong it's actually exo terra stone desert dose that make a difference?

If you click the link I left for you you'll see a full detailed explanation of substrate choices.