Cyrpress Mulch Question?

[LRTortoises]

So I use Cypress Mulch in both my outdoor and indoor enclosures. The Marginateds and Redfoots seem to love it. Then in some forums I see posts like this from Vets of Tortoises eating hardwood chips and getting impacted. Any thoughts? I know one answer is that the diet must not be correct but is that the best answer?

Should I just be using soil and coconut Coir?




Here is the post about that. https://www.facebook.com/tollbarnvet/posts/700284723432981?hc_location=ufi in case you are on Facebook.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I've never encountered a tortoise that ate cypress mulch chips. I've been using it outdoors in my pens for almost 20 years and indoors have used orchid bark.
I'm going to assume that tortoises eating substrate do so because of nutrients missing in the diet. For example, I've seen rocks eaten by tortoises that needed calcium.....Wood eaten by tortoises seeking? Fiber? I don't know.

 

[Careym13]

One of my Leopards ate a little bit of cypress mulch recently. He had access to cuttlebone but hadn't touched it. So I broke the cuttlebone up into several smaller pieces that were easier for him to eat and he hasn't touched the mulch since. Orchid bark is another one I use and I've never seen the torts try to eat that.