Reptilian Feline
Active Member
With Medusa living in water, I once worried he might get shell rot, but that doesn't seem to happen.
With the leopard torts, the high humidity wasn't supposed to be a problem, because from what I read, they never got shell rot.
With redfoots, shell rot comes up often, as something to look out for. They also need it humid, but should have dry substrate... and yet, on some sites, they are described as sleeping in their water dishes.
When you get a brick of coco coir, you pour water on it so it expands. Not all animals can use that. Some of our tarantulas need dry coco coir, for example. When making as little, drying what you need in the oven isn't a problem, but when setting up a new large tank, you need a lot of coco coir.
Is newly expanded coco coir too wet for tortoises that are prone to shell rot? Is it fine to just add a layer of finely shopped bark on top? I assume the tort will dig, isn't that a problem as well, mixing the top bark with the bottom moist coco coir?
If this has already been answered, just link to the thread, please. Searching for shell rot, just turned up a lot of threads about people fearing that their torts had it. I want to prevent it from ever happening.
With the leopard torts, the high humidity wasn't supposed to be a problem, because from what I read, they never got shell rot.
With redfoots, shell rot comes up often, as something to look out for. They also need it humid, but should have dry substrate... and yet, on some sites, they are described as sleeping in their water dishes.
When you get a brick of coco coir, you pour water on it so it expands. Not all animals can use that. Some of our tarantulas need dry coco coir, for example. When making as little, drying what you need in the oven isn't a problem, but when setting up a new large tank, you need a lot of coco coir.
Is newly expanded coco coir too wet for tortoises that are prone to shell rot? Is it fine to just add a layer of finely shopped bark on top? I assume the tort will dig, isn't that a problem as well, mixing the top bark with the bottom moist coco coir?
If this has already been answered, just link to the thread, please. Searching for shell rot, just turned up a lot of threads about people fearing that their torts had it. I want to prevent it from ever happening.