Newbie with Q's re safe plants inside habitat

[svteclipse]

Okay, so my 10yr old daughter and I are working on our habitat for two young Hermanns. We're about to order them and are preparing the habitat in advance.So we'd like so include some plants in it and have been struggling with what's okay and what's not.

We're working on the half play sand / half top soil mixture for our substrate. We went to a Home Depot, picked up some "potting soil", then realized this stuff appears to have fertilizer in it which we know is not good. So we plan to go back out and find some "top soil" to mix in with our sand.

Next, we purchased some plants from the garden section and have some marigolds that were sold in the small containers (that you normally transplant into a larger pot). So we've taken those in moved then into our container that will sit within the habitat but still noticed that those plants that you buy are in their own soil that appears to have plant food in it. Is this a danger to young Hermanns??? Next we also have another tray with those little pellets that expand with water, then you place your seeds in it. So we have some wildflower seeds and some basil lettuce seeds we put in them to grow.

Are we going overboard with flower plants in our habitat? And most importantly, when you place plants inside to grow, for them to snack on, must you use some sort of soil other than normal potting soil?

Thanks everyone, this topic really got us hung up..... Hopefully on Tuesday we'll have our tortoises and we'll be all prepared when they hget home!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi svteclipse:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know your name and where you are?

My substrate preference is orchid bark or cypress mulch. Never been much of a fan of using sand with anything.

You can gently remove all the dirt from around the roots of your new plants and replace it with soil you know has no pesticides or fertilizers in it. You can sow the seed directly into your substrate.

 

[svteclipse]

Hi svteclipse:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know your name and where you are?

My substrate preference is orchid bark or cypress mulch. Never been much of a fan of using sand with anything.

You can gently remove all the dirt from around the roots of your new plants and replace it with soil you know has no pesticides or fertilizers in it. You can sow the seed directly into your substrate.

Great information, thanks so much!

 

[svteclipse]

I appreciate the information. We found ourselves a nursery, some actual top soil, and we went ahead and re-potted our plants. We almost put in some snapdragon plants then saw many conflicting opinions as to whether they were toxic or not so we opted to go without them and instead used some Baby Tear plants that we also purchased.

So we're off to a good start. We currently choose to go with a 67 qt container for our soon to be here torts that are 2.5" and 2" in length. It measures 40" in length and 20" wide. How long before we should increase the size of this habitat? Any suggestions on this would be appreciated. We opted to choose a container that was presentable as it sits on a desktop while they're small. Then we're going to begin working on their outdoor location to use as well that'll be about 2ft x 10ft long.

Thanks, this is such a great adventure to take with my 10yr old daughter!

 

[svteclipse]

So our little torts are en route! They'll be here in the morning. So a question on feeding... If we have some plants in the habitat what should our feeding schedule be like? In it we have rosemary, marigold, thyme, baby tears, etc. Should we feed them 2x a day expecting that they'll be feeding on their own? (of course we'll be monitoring it but just checking for norms)... Thanks

 

[ascott]

How fun....I have this nagging voice in my head (it rarely shuts up ) that is telling me that the marigold may be questionable....please find out what particular marigold you have then you can go to www.thetortoisetable.com and use that for a quick reference source...

French or African Marigold should not be made available for food to the tortoise

Marsh Marigold (kindcup) should not be made available for food to the tortoise

Burr Marigold (three lobe beggarticks, water agrimony) should not be made available for food to the tortoise

The site is a good quick reference....

I agree with Yvonne, sand is something that I would never use.

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Marsh marigold....correction, I have type ... not kindcup but should have been Kingcup....