Bed-A-beast fully dried ok for.....

[hannah]

shell-rot prone russian tortoises nighttime habitats which are two( one each) 40 gallon plastic storage boxes, with air holes and lids?

they are on repti-bark at night now but it's time to clean and change out the substrate. the outdoor substrate is a mix of natural occuring grasses/weeds, repti-bark, play sand and soil. Im in Southern California.

Advice?

 

[derf]

I'd say use a mixture of the play sand and topsoil/loam

 

[hannah]

thanks, derf.....btw, i am very impressed and inspired by your outdoor tort habitat.

/

I'd say use a mixture of the play sand and topsoil/loam

 

[Crazy1]

I have known people who have had problems with the repti-bark as it is made from the fir tree which can cause eye and respiritory problems in torts. yard dirt, sand and bead a beast or sand and yard dirt or sand and organic soil. a mix of 50/50 or 70/30 (dirt, bed a beast or soil being the 70% sand being the 30%)

 

[hannah]

would like to hear more from others, danny and jaqui espcially if i need to pull the repti-bark from the outdoor habitat! i'd say its 70% bark, 30% sand and all mixed with weeds etc, I've had them now a little over a week.

 

[Millerlite]

i would take most the bark out of the outdoor one, also if you turn the soil over it would be a good substrate for a russian, so. cali, has some nice natural dirt and with outdoors you really dont need to add anything. With my russians i just turned the dirt over, and added a bag of soil to help with the growth in the enclosure, then i let it get overgrown, and watered it like i would a garden.

 

[Crazy1]

Outside I too just use the CA dirt as long as you don't have really hard clay or really sandy soil If you do then I would add some Kellogg natural topsoil to it and mix it in. JMHO