Tortoise coco coir substrate humidity

[nejra]

Hello everyone, I have prepared coco coir substrate for my tortoise and it looks like this shown on my photos. The question is how long should I wait to dry? It is still sticky and when I dig my arm in, it is quite cold. I'm worried that my tortoise will get dirty and stick everything to himself, or the ground would get in his eye or he will get cold if go under. I usually let it dry fully, but it takes days to get it. Don't know even how this substrate should look, I mean in humidity way?

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello everyone, I have prepared coco coir substrate for my tortoise and it looks like this shown on my photos. The question is how long should I wait to dry? It is still sticky and when I dig my arm in, it is quite cold. I'm worried that my tortoise will get dirty and stick everything to himself, or the ground would get in his eye or he will get cold if go under. I usually let it dry fully, but it takes days to get it. Don't know even how this substrate should look, I mean in humidity way?

Hi!
It looks just right. You can just get rid of the water excess - squeeze it before moving to the enclosure.
It's cold to touch because water evaporates from surface and it's normal - this gives us humidity we need. Substrate should damp, no standing or dripping water.

Don't worry about coir sticking to the tortoise.

 

[Tom]

Hand pack it firmly to reduce the mess.

 

[Daffodil]

I'm a complete newbie to this, but I had the same initial questions. Someone here mentioned that they had the damp coco coir substrate and put a layer of orchid bark on top of that.

That's worked well for me.... The damp coco coir layer provides the necessary humidity for my baby Russian, and the bark layer allows him to always be walking on something dry.

(I do have a closed enclosure, so that's probably more a factor in maintaining the humidity than if I just had coco coir.)