maggie3fan said:But you just yelled at one of our most experienced keepers and that bothers me.
I use cypress mulch for my substrate. Depending on where you live sometimes it can be difficult to impossible to get something that does not have pine in it. Pine is toxic to tortoises so watch out for that. You can also use eco earth or coir and mix that 50/50 with clean play sand. I don't like using anything that says sand.
You have great lawn so why are they on a towel? They should be on the grass to graze it. You can also use fine grade orchid bark. You need to get them off that hay substrate. Did you want to tell use what you are feeding? Your desert babies carapaces look just fine.
I did not yell, or mean to. I was using caps to make sure it clear that they are not kept that way, as I had never even said that. They do get out almost daily, especially now that it is warming up (located in So Cal). That is not hay as their "bedding" it is picked grass from the yard.... which I was told to use by the person I got Sherman from.--I am open to suggestions to change that now, since it is obviously not the best, so thank you for your input.
In regards to the towel question, they are only on the towel to eat the Mazuri as it is much easier for them to eat it on a solid surface than the grass, where it would fall between grass blades and become difficult to reach easily. I also offered some Cactus to them, on the towel, yesterday, as the cactus was in little pieces, and would be almost impossible for them to eat in the grass. The rest of their "outdoor" time is 100% on the grass to graze; they were only on the towel for about 10 minutes to eat their Mazuri and cactus. The towel was on their outdoor enclosure, which is made of a wood frame and mesh/wire on the top to prevent birds, cats, etc. from getting to them. I have an x-pen around that too, for added protection.
Initially, they were just eating grass and weeds in the yard (as I was falsely instructed to feed them). They are now still eating the grass/weeds everytime they are in their outdoor pen, as well as now some Mazuri (I was thinking of giving that to them every other day), some pieces of cactus, sometimes romaine lettuce (rarely), and Dandelions when available. Like I also stated, I also purchased some seeds to grow for them to eat as well. They are currently still in the process of growing.