J.T.
New Member
Hey everyone! I've tried several types of substrate by now in hope of finding "the right one" but it seems like I just keep spending lots of money without even getting close to figuring things out... There is just so much mixed and wrong information out there that I'm compleatly disoriented by now...
I keep my little ones in a "rabbit" cage that is 100x50cm. I first started using coco coir as subtrate because I kept reading that it was safe and held moisture well. I found it did neither. I poured in about two litres of water every week and mixed it but within a couple of days the water always ended up pooling at the bottom leaving the top layer dry and dusty. So dusty in fact that my tortoises eyes started to get watery and they couldnt walk without sinking in. On top of it they started eating the damn stuff and long coco strings were constanly hanging out their mouths and butts.
So next thing I did was try a soil/sand mix. I went a bought a huge sack of biological planting soil and mixed that with playing sand (something I picked up from tortoisetrust.org). I figured they'd be able to walk better on it. No such luck... The ground ended up just as soft as before. Since their eyes got better though yi thought I just needed something to make it firmer.
Then I found a sand/loam mix for digging reptiles at a pet store and decided to mix that into the existing substrat and i really like the firmness of it. So much, that I was considering switching to Lucky Reptiles Desert Bedding altogether until I singned up here yesterday and saw that pretty much everyone thinks sand is dangerous.
I feed them outside their enclosure after their dayly soak on a large slate tile to keep them from eating sand. Is it still too dangerous to use sand that way? And would it be imposible to maintain moisture with the desert bedding?
Another problem I've had with all subtrates so far is that they get themselves compleatly caked in dirt when they walk through their water dish. I've tried putting stones and pebbles around the dish to prevent that but there's just no way... Thanks in advance guys.
I keep my little ones in a "rabbit" cage that is 100x50cm. I first started using coco coir as subtrate because I kept reading that it was safe and held moisture well. I found it did neither. I poured in about two litres of water every week and mixed it but within a couple of days the water always ended up pooling at the bottom leaving the top layer dry and dusty. So dusty in fact that my tortoises eyes started to get watery and they couldnt walk without sinking in. On top of it they started eating the damn stuff and long coco strings were constanly hanging out their mouths and butts.
So next thing I did was try a soil/sand mix. I went a bought a huge sack of biological planting soil and mixed that with playing sand (something I picked up from tortoisetrust.org). I figured they'd be able to walk better on it. No such luck... The ground ended up just as soft as before. Since their eyes got better though yi thought I just needed something to make it firmer.
Then I found a sand/loam mix for digging reptiles at a pet store and decided to mix that into the existing substrat and i really like the firmness of it. So much, that I was considering switching to Lucky Reptiles Desert Bedding altogether until I singned up here yesterday and saw that pretty much everyone thinks sand is dangerous.
I feed them outside their enclosure after their dayly soak on a large slate tile to keep them from eating sand. Is it still too dangerous to use sand that way? And would it be imposible to maintain moisture with the desert bedding?
Another problem I've had with all subtrates so far is that they get themselves compleatly caked in dirt when they walk through their water dish. I've tried putting stones and pebbles around the dish to prevent that but there's just no way... Thanks in advance guys.