tortcaden
Member
In my outdoor enclosure can I use play-sand? My Russian tortoise is used to coco coir but I was wondering, would a mix be better. I just need some advice. Thanks!
Sand?
- Thread starter tortcaden
- Start date
No sand- good on plain dirt can be mixed in. Just be mindful of drainage because of the horrible storms we get on this side of the Appalachian Mountains.
Sand is an impaction risk and possible skin and eye irritant. I wouldn't use it inside or out. Not by itself and not as part of a mix. There are other substrates that are safer and better.
tortcaden
Member
What about peat moss
Aeon
Member
What about for Turtles ?
I would imagine that for a lot of turtles, it would be a bit better. I believe things like soft shells actually need sand to burrow. I could be wrong, of course.
Aeon
Member
I actually think that when we are looking into substrates we should really be asking the animal and not the pets hop. Do some research and find what it's natural habitat is then try your best to emulate it. Grass, hay, soil, sand, peat....
All depends on your animal and its natural habitat .. Right?
All depends on your animal and its natural habitat .. Right?
Sorry I mistyped I meant good old plain dirt not a mix
No. In practice this leads to dead tortoises. No one really knows what this would be for most species, it can vary tremendously in a very short distance, and they don't live, eat, walk and sleep on whatever a person might choose exclusively. They might eat over yonder on one type of substrate, sleep over the other way on another type of substrate, sit in the shade mid day on a third type of substrate, and walk back and forth from all of these on any number of substrates. Which one is "natural".
Further, what happens in the wild often doesn't work in captivity. Some tortoises do live on sand some of the time in the wild. Yet they will get impacted and die if kept on sand in a captive environment.
We know from decades of trial and error what the good and bad points of any given substrate are in a captive environment. Using this info, we can decide which of the known safe ones suits our tortoises needs the best. Those of us with lots of experience with a given species can suggest one or another so that the whole world doesn't have to learn the hard way at the expense of the animal.
Aeon
Member
Oh right Yeah I never really thought about it in that way before. Very valid point about different terrain in the wild as they forage, sleep, eat and rest.
Thank you for a most enlightening answer Tom!
