My torts outside substrate is made out of organic soil and coconut coir.
Just spotted her dug halfway down and eating what looks like the soil.
Is this OK?
This is one reason I always say to not use bought-in-a-bag soil. You can't know what composted material it is made of. It might be something that smells appetizing to your tortoise and it could be toxic.
Any conclusion here? Tom said not to use bought-in-a-bag soil and I agree. And if it's mixed with coconut coir he may be eating that too and surely that's not good either. I think natural earth without any additives would be OK for substrate if you don't have anything else more suitable, and if he is being fed a correct diet for this species and seems healthy to you, that should be OK. But I am not the expert!
If you have the coco coir already use that in place of the soil. If not then cypress mulch or fir bark. For the money I like cypress under with fine fir bark over. Looks nice and performs well
Ok, bit confused now as I’m sure I a previous discussion I have been advised to use coconut coir or orchid bark. The orchid bark here in NZ is made of pine so I went for the coconut coir. I use it in my inside enclosure and at the moment no issues.
I will remove all substrate from the outdoor enclosure and start again.
Orchid park is usually fine fir bark in the US so that may be the issue. Pine/cedar are no good for torts. Sorry for the confusion. You are good tort to being what you are!