It's almost winter...

[Mallykc]

And that means its time to prepare my winter enclosure. I have a 4 year old tort that will be moving back inside soon but I have a slight problem.
Last year he was in a long storage container with coconut husk and top soil and it worked great but he has out grown the container and the top soil and husk was so messy! My walls were black by the time spring came around from him kicking the dirt up.
This year I have up graded to one of those blue plastic kiddie pools (looks real classy in my living room (-; ) but I wanted to see if anyone had any other suggestions for a substrate that maybe wont be so messy/dusty.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!!

 

[Tom]

They make one called "coco chips". I suspect that it was your top soil making the mess last year. The coco chips are about as mess free as anything I've ever seen.

Not related to your original question, but a kiddie pool seems way too small for a 4 year old sulcata. I had to kick my one year olds out of their 4x8' because they were getting too big.

 

[Mallykc]

Oh perfect ill have to give the chips a try!
And the pool is 5ft, it's the biggest they had but you're right it probably is a little on the small side for him. But he also is on the small side for being a 4 yr old sulcata.
Luckily I live in Florida so I'm hoping he'll only be inside on the cold nights and not 24/7.
Thanks for the suggestion on the chips!

 

[jojay327]

Just build him a 4x4 box with heat and let him go as he chooses. I live in South Carolina and built mine in one afternoon. I got a Kane heat pad and put some heat lamps from above. Much better for the tort and not very difficult. Especially for Florida weather. Give it a try, Tom has a step by step plan on here if you search. Jay

 

[Laura]

build a heated box outside, and let him decide when he wants to be out or not... he may slow down a bit, but that is ok...