Change of substrate?

[StuMac]

Hey guys. Looking for a little advice. I've had Peaches for 8 months now and all is doing great. She is enjoying her enclosure and wanders around, eats well, is putting on weight and getting bigger...but I'm bored of her substrate! Looking at all the other enclosures on here, there is a lot of variety used. At the moment I'm using a all-in-one substrate that's generically labeled as suitable for Mediteranean Tortoises, but it's a boring brown soil-type with very little to it. She doesn't seem keen to bury herself in it either. Is this just her species? I'm not worried about her health as she is never giving me concern, and eats really well after a soak, like this morning. Just wondered if there is any other kind of substrate I could use, maybe this would create more interesting terrain for her too.

PS...just heard her scratching about, found her trying to mount her buddy!( don't worry, it's a cheap ornament from a pound store!)

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

You could try “dressing" things up by planting edible plants.

 

[StuMac]

Would this soil be suitable to grow them? I'm a novice when it comes to growing plants. I pick dandelions from my garden, as well as buying Kale/Lambs Lettuce/Mixed Greens and add some grated carrot for some colour too. She eats all this really well just thought her sub looked bland.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

That's the thing about substrate. It looks like, well dirt. As for the substrates ability to support growth of plants, if you get small plants in small planters, maybe you could just plant the container. I use a lawn garden edging as a barrier to prevent my Little Ricky from munching down his enclosure plants. Doesn't work as well as I hoped, but it slows down the steady evaporation of anything planted unprotected.

 

[StuMac]

Yeah I could try planting them in little pots. That would give her a challenge if nothing else. Yeah I agree with the dirt comment, I didn't word my post well! I wondered if I could use bark chips or sphagnum moss as an extra. Didn't know if this would harm a Hermanns if eaten. Thanks for your advice. Much appreciated.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Yes you could use sphagnum moss piles to dress it up some. In my area, I'm able to find smallish bags of organic sphagnum moss. Some people use a top dressing of orchid bark, though I never have. I'd be too concerned about the tortoise eating the bark chips. Maybe someone with experience using that product could chime in.

 

[StuMac]

That was my concern about the chips too, in case they were ingested and caused trouble. I can get moss at my local pet shop so I can pick some up and bundle it in her hidey holes. Thanks for the advice. Never want to risk things

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

I'm like you, I'm very over protective of my babies.

 

[StuMac]

So I decided to get some coco coir today. Spent this evening setting it up while Peaches wandered around my dining room.... And here we are! Got her some cuttlebone too to keep up her calcium seeing as the weather up here in North East Scotland is now nice and wintry and she will only be getting artificial UV. She seems happy wandering about navigating the bumps I made for her.