New Redfoot Enclosure Help

[Tofutheredfoot]

We have an approximately two year old red foot tortoise named Tofu. His new enclosure is currently in production with Toad Ranch and we think it’ll ship out around the end of the month. He has been living his best tortoise life in a table on our screened in porch for the summer but with temperatures dropping we need to bring him back inside. While his current table has live plants in it we are interested in making his new enclosure to officially “bioactive.” My big questions are 1) do I need a layer of rock at the bottom for drainage? I’ve heard differing opinions based on redfoots being burrowers and how having rock could be harmful. But that for a true bioactive system it’s essential to have it. 2) I’ve seen The BioDude’s recommendation for a redfoot bioactive set up but was wondering if there were any other lists of what we would need to make this happen. 3) can anyone share plants that are not harmful for him. Currently we have a spider plant, a bromeliad and a snake plant that have survived his trampling all summer. His new enclosure is 6x3x3 so we’ll have tons of room to fill and 4) can anyone share sites for supplies that we can order from? I’m having a hard time finding large cork hides for our guy. He’s still small now but I’d like to get something that will last a while. Appreciate all of the tips, pointers, suggestions we can get!

 

[mojo_1]

I have isopods and springtails in Mojo's enclosure and it just has orchid bark in it. As far as hides go I just upgraded Mojo's to a couple of square plastic planters that I cut the sides out and put them together. Also I made some small tunnels with pvc drainage pipe.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hi!
1. Having a drainage layer is often a good idea to prevent water clogging. I see no problem with stones (expanded clay, I suppose, is a better option) - just put them in meshed washing bags or wrap in fiberglass mesh fabric (fly screen mesh). Redfoots aren't really burrowers, as I know - they reuse existing animal burrows and wedge themselves under tree logs and such.
2. If you want to have earthworms in the substrate you'll need at the very least 6-8 inches and BioDude kits can become pricey. You can mix your own substrate basing on ABG substrate mix. Some ideas are here: https://terrariumtribe.com/bioactive-substrate/ There are also "kickstarter" kits from Arcadia (mostly earthworms castings and similar stuff) for enriching typical substrate mix with organic components.
3. Non-harmful plants for the enclosure (besides those you've listed) are pothos, coleus, boston fern, tradescantia zebrina ("wandering jew"), ZZ plant (zameoculcas). Elephant's ear can be also planted - this one is contradictory, as it's marked as non-safe in some sources but redfoots consume it in the wild (and generally tortoises have no issues with oxalate crystalls).
4. You may use just cork bark flats instead of round hides - they won't take much precious walking space but tortoise can just settle down under them. At least, that's what mine does. Clay pot halves also work nice.

I believe, @jaizei knows pretty much about bioactive enclosures. Hopefully, he will share some insights.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

I thought about making a drainage layer at one point, but never went through with it. Here is the thread on it and what others had to say: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/s...invertebrate-trick-work-for-tortoises.214325/