4 year old Sulcata bedding

Kaelee1211

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Joined
Aug 27, 2019
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1
Location (City and/or State)
Ithaca, NY
We recently adopted a 4 year old Sulcata, Ro. We have Timothy hay as bedding, she sounded a bit stuffy, took her to the vet and she’s good. Thinking it’s the timothy hay. Want to change it tonight, coconut coir? What would you recommend? This adoption was on the fly, she was not taken care of properly. We have built her an indoor house. 10’x5’ so want to be sure we can cover the entire home. Thanks!
 

Maro2Bear

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Glenn Dale, Maryland, USA
Greetings, welcome to the Forum.

Hay is definitely not a good substrate for humidity loving/wanting/needing tortoises like Sulcatas.

Since you are looking to cover a larger area, go visit Home Depot or Lowes or WalMart and look in the garden center for 100% Cypress mulch with no additives.

Hay will rot and mildew with high humidity, cypress mulch won’t. Cypress will run you about $3.00 for 2-3 cubic feet. Get a few bags.

Most of the info you need is right here, good luck!

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/

Heres the substrate portion ...

Substrate: I recommend coco coir, orchid bark, cypress mulch, plain additive free soil, or yard dirt if yours is suitable. All of these can be purchased in bulk at most hardware or garden center stores at a tremendous savings. I recommend against wood shavings or chips, ground walnut shell, corn cob bedding, rabbit pellets, compressed grass pellet bedding, newspaper pellets, hay, cedar, or any amount of sand.


Good luck!

Ps - make sure you are soaking!
 

Yvonne G

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I'm thinking a 4 year old sulcata is big enough to not have to live in the house anymore. She should be outside with a heated shelter. Can we see pictures of both the tortoise and the enclosure?
 

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