Toxic to russian tortoise?

[platax88]

Hello, I am in the process of building a big habitat for my russian tortoise to fit the dinosaur theme of the room. I this room there are many faux rocks, boulders and wall made out of Styrofoam, and paper mache made out of regular brown paper and non-toxic white school glue (not with flour). There are some details painted on them with acrylic paint. I wanted to incorporate the faux paper mache rocks into the perimeter of the habitat but in a way that they will not get any moisture. Do you think the tortoise will be ok in close proximity to the cured white glue and acrylic paint?

Thanks!

Jack

 

[Logan J]

Hello, I am in the process of building a big habitat for my russian tortoise to fit the dinosaur theme of the room. I this room there are many faux rocks, boulders and wall made out of Styrofoam, and paper mache made out of regular brown paper and non-toxic white school glue (not with flour). There are some details painted on them with acrylic paint. I wanted to incorporate the faux paper mache rocks into the perimeter of the habitat but in a way that they will not get any moisture. Do you think the tortoise will be ok in close proximity to the cured white glue and acrylic paint?

Thanks!

Jack

No glue or anything they tend to chew anything they can find.

 

[platax88]

Thanks Logan!

Do you think cured concrete is ok? also, what about non-toxic, waterbased paints over the concrete?

Hello, I am in the process of building a big habitat for my russian tortoise to fit the dinosaur theme of the room. I this room there are many faux rocks, boulders and wall made out of Styrofoam, and paper mache made out of regular brown paper and non-toxic white school glue (not with flour). There are some details painted on them with acrylic paint. I wanted to incorporate the faux paper mache rocks into the perimeter of the habitat but in a way that they will not get any moisture. Do you think the tortoise will be ok in close proximity to the cured white glue and acrylic paint?

Thanks!

Jack

No glue or anything they tend to chew anything they can find.

 

[CDNPyxis]

Concrete would be fine. The problem with your original idea is that your tortoise will probably rip it apart just by walking around the edges of your enclosure.

I would be careful with paint as it will probably flake off as the concrete absorbs water from the enclosure, but you may be fine with it.

Craig

 

[kanalomele]

My Russians are fine with all of those. I have cardboard box "houses" that my nephews made for them that they love. It is of course not going to last very long as we head into winter rains. So I would not recommend the paper mache as a structural element, but water bases paints and paper pulp are not going to hurt the torts.