More newbie questions

[lbailey4487]

I am still educating myself, hoping to get my tort friend soon! I have some more set-up questions. Do I need to take the grass out of my tortoise’s enclosure and add substrate? The lawn area is fescue and mixed clover mainly. Is substrate necessary? How do I clean the outdoor enclosure? Do I need to replace the substrate regularly? Can the used substrate be composted for the flower beds later?
As to food, can Russian tortoises eat Timothy hay? I found some at Walmart made for guinea pigs that had dried, safe flowers mixed in. Would this be ok for them?
I appreciate any help! I want to do this right!

 

[Tom]

I am still educating myself, hoping to get my tort friend soon! I have some more set-up questions. Do I need to take the grass out of my tortoise’s enclosure and add substrate? The lawn area is fescue and mixed clover mainly. Is substrate necessary? How do I clean the outdoor enclosure? Do I need to replace the substrate regularly? Can the used substrate be composted for the flower beds later?
As to food, can Russian tortoises eat Timothy hay? I found some at Walmart made for guinea pigs that had dried, safe flowers mixed in. Would this be ok for them?
I appreciate any help! I want to do this right!

First, what size, age and species of tortoise are we talking about?

For an outdoor enclosure grass and clover is great. No need to remove it. You don't need "substrate" outdoors. Be sure the grass isn't being treated with lawn chemicals and be sure you don't have oxalis in that mixed clover.

I don't "clean" my outdoor enclosures. I have a little pooper scooper for each enclosure. I dump, rinse, and refill the tortoise waters daily. I clean out their night houses as needed. But there really isn't much "cleaning" needed outside. Its pretty much dirt.

Used substrate can be composted and re-used IF spreading tortoise diseases is not an issue. I would not use tortoise waste from one enclosure, and then use the compost to plant plants in another enclosure. If you only have one tortoise, and you intend to use your compost in the front yard away from any other tortoises, then it should be totally fine.

No tort should be fed Timothy hay. It's too coarse and stemy. Russians are not grass eaters, so hay is not appropriate for them.

 

[lbailey4487]

First, what size, age and species of tortoise are we talking about?

For an outdoor enclosure grass and clover is great. No need to remove it. You don't need "substrate" outdoors. Be sure the grass isn't being treated with lawn chemicals and be sure you don't have oxalis in that mixed clover.

I don't "clean" my outdoor enclosures. I have a little pooper scooper for each enclosure. I dump, rinse, and refill the tortoise waters daily. I clean out their night houses as needed. But there really isn't much "cleaning" needed outside. Its pretty much dirt.

Used substrate can be composted and re-used IF spreading tortoise diseases is not an issue. I would not use tortoise waste from one enclosure, and then use the compost to plant plants in another enclosure. If you only have one tortoise, and you intend to use your compost in the front yard away from any other tortoises, then it should be totally fine.

No tort should be fed Timothy hay. It's too coarse and stemy. Russians are not grass eaters, so hay is not appropriate for them.

Thank you for your reply! I’m going to carefully look over the grassy area where I plan to put the enclosure to make sure it’s safe. I am looking for a young adult Russian tortoise, as that seems the best match for my area’s climate, personality, and what I can manage. While I’d love watching a baby grow, being new to reptiles in general, I want to take it easy. And I only plan for one tortoise and would be using the compost in ornamental flower beds later. I’ve been really nervous about digging outside the enclosure. Someone suggested using a raised bed to allow for digging but not out of the enclosure. I’m thinking it would also help with making an enclosure predator safe, as in hardware cloth on the bottom, 8-12 inches of coco coir and cypress mulch, a hardware cloth frame on top. I’m working on a 10 X 10 outdoor size, 4 X 8 inside. Thoughts? Thank you for all you have posted. I have read it repeatedly and printed it for reference. I really do want to do this right. I’ve admired turtles and tortoises for so long!

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

For your outdoor space, have you considered something like the picture below? It’s basically a dog kennel with a visual barrier at the bottom, connected to a heated night box, made by the legend that is @Tom
To prevent digging, I’d dig down about half a foot, lay down some mesh and and put the barrier frame in, then I’d fill up with dirt from the yard and plant grass, then obviously put the dog kennel on topnow there’s of course cheaper ways to go about this I’m sure, but I do love how sturdy and predator proof it is!


Then for indoors, feel free to check out this thread I made, I included lots of visual examples

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope this helps! Tom can definitely help advising with the outdoor bit more than me