Eco earth nightmare

[Maggie Cummings]

Soak them once a day for 10 or 15 minutes. You are soaking them too much and that pushes the food thru their systems faster and they don't get all the nutrition from the food that way and it's just bad all around.

 

[Amanda81]

I have one of the Redfoot torts that is completely unruly, it is fantastic...anytime I reach near the water dish to dump the slop mud and water mix out of it...he literally lifts on all fours and rushes towards my hand, and at the last moment he sucks in his head and rams his whole shell against my hand and then lifts the back and plants his back feet and it is on....he against that thing that attacks his water...lol...I love it...

That's cute.

 

[Amanda81]

Soak them once a day for 10 or 15 minutes. You are soaking them too much and that pushes the food thru their systems faster and they don't get all the nutrition from the food that way and it's just bad all around.

Ok. I will cut back to once a day. Now sometimes when their in their enclosure I will mist their shells w warm water, do I need to stop that as well?

 

[SunnySideUp]

Ok. I will cut back to once a day. Now sometimes when their in their enclosure I will mist their shells w warm water, do I need to stop that as well?

Spraying their shells a few times a day is a perfectly safe practice. That won't induce a bowel movement, as far as I know (unless the spraying gives them a bit of a scare, haha )

 

[Amanda81]

So I went back and read toms care sheet again. I have read it a couple times before, and knew I had read somewhere about spraying their shells frequently and about soaking them, but couldn't remember the details. It's stated right there to soak once and spray often. I swear I forget stuff so quickly. Thanks guys!!

 

[babytortie]

Ok my secret is out, I have OCD about things being clean, neat and organized. Now I know they are going to get dirty, that's what they do and I am cool w this, I have that under control. it's the part where it's all over everything. I also worry, about everything, I worry about them eating it, they prefer their food on a rock so of course it gets spread out all over the place and then they just nibble as they walk around, getting pieces of it w their food and when they dig it's all over their eyes, will that hurt their eyes? I soak them 3-4 times a day so they get cleaned up frequently but they will have it right back in their eyes as soon as I put them back in there. And then I also worry that maybe I have it to wet, maybe there needs to b a dry layer over top all that wet "dirt". ?? Shoot, I don't know. And yes, when they eat they have little pieces of stuff all over their faces and if I see it I get it off, just how I am. They don't seem to mind me cleaning them up tho.

LOL glad I'm not the only one! I was just thinking this same thing today when I took my tort out for a soak. The stuff is always all over its face/eyes.

 

[Amanda81]

LOL glad I'm not the only one! I was just thinking this same thing today when I took my tort out for a soak. The stuff is always all over its face/eyes.

Ya I broke down and put bark on top of it. It did eventually settle and pack down some but I still was frustrated w it all over their eyes so I got a real good deal on bark from pet mountain so I got it and just added it to my existing substrate. They r much cleaner now. Lol.

 

[Tom]

This is why I don't use coco coir for sulcatas. I prefer orchid bark.

 

[Amanda81]

When I switched I looked at Home Depot and lowes as you suggested and they didn't have the large bags so I got a great deal on it through petmountain.com and it was so funny when I first put the quads back in their enclosure. They was doing their "we are real big" walk. Course I changed to the bark when I changed their enclosure so they wanted to check everything out, it was funny. But it's been a great change over. I keep the Eco earth stuff wet and only mist the bark. I didn't mix the 2, I done it in layers. 3" of Eco earth and 2" of bark. It's much much better.

 

[J.P.]

do you know about the plastic grates that are used for fish tank undergravel filters? if you bury it under the subtrate your tort's won't be able to get under. you'll still have a natural looking setup and get full benefit of humidity and still prevent torts from burrowing in the substrate.. any kind of grate/screen would work, just make sure the holes are small enough so that tort's feet do not fit in the holes and accidentally get stuck.

do provide a hide with some moss so your torts can still enjoy their natural burrowing behavior.

 

[Amanda81]

I don't really want to prevent them from digging/burrowing, it's their natural thing to do. Their just doing what's natural to them, it's my ocd that I have to control. I ended up layering Eco earth and bark so they stay a little cleaner for the most part and they can still dig themselves a place out if they like. I also added a thick layer of moss to their hides, they also like to go in there and bury under that. I have made real progress since I originally posted this, they dig stuff up and move things around, I fix some of it and leave some too. When I first got my torts I was more like " let's put these torts in a nice pretty enclosure" and now I am more like " let's give them as close to natural as possible". I want them to do what they do naturally, even if that means stuff ain't how I put it. I'm glad that they ain't running around with Eco earth crumbs in their eyes tho. Lol. If I have learned one thing it's that you learn with time, and the longer I have them the more I learn, the more I myself change to give them what they need. I started w a bunch of pretty decor and everything set up all perfect, well now I have just put away all the pretty and it's more of a dirt and bark mess, they seem happier this way, so I am good with that. Now if I did want to stop them from burrowing those underground filter racks would be a super idea, I use to use them in my aquarium and they are sturdy.