Cleaning/changing substrate- how often?

[Legmaker72]

Just wondering how often do you guys clean out or change out/replace your substrate?
For hygiene purposes...
What's the norm?
Thanks !

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Spot clean as needed. Any areas that have been fouled.
I never replace all of it at once.

 

[Legmaker72]

Thank you. That's what I was wondering. Much appreciated.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Some people including myself release "PILLBUGS" (The insects that roll into a ball when disturbed) into their enclosures as natural cleanup workers.
This also helps quite a bit.

 

[Pearly]

I've had mine since the end of June, with earthworms, few pillbugs and bunch of tiny soil centipedes. All I do is turn it every couple of rinse top covering moss and pick up poo if I see any. I'm thinking about leaving even that in there, just burying deeper under the moss. It does not stink at all if that's your concern. I think it's colonized by bunch of bacteria that make things nice and healthy in there

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

I saw this thread and thought I could counter with and suggest what some call a bio-active substrate. @Pearly and @ZEROPILOT beat me to it. Spot cleaning and poop removal are good too. The total 100% change out on some routine basis provides no better good husbandry than the bio-active substrate, may even take a few things away.

Isopods (pillbugs), those very small centipedes, springtails, worms all create a living substrate. An added plus is that many tortoises will entertain themselves going for the occasional stray pillbug that wanders around during lighted day time hours, worms too.

For some species the occasional snail placed in the living foliage will give them a great 'hunt'.

 

[Tom]

I remove and replace the substrate only when I'm moving a new tortoise into an enclosure. Otherwise I just spot clean as needed and remove old food daily.

 

[Pearly]

I saw this thread and thought I could counter with and suggest what some call a bio-active substrate. @Pearly and @ZEROPILOT beat me to it. Spot cleaning and poop removal are good too. The total 100% change out on some routine basis provides no better good husbandry than the bio-active substrate, may even take a few things away.

Isopods (pillbugs), those very small centipedes, springtails, worms all create a living substrate. An added plus is that many tortoises will entertain themselves going for the occasional stray pillbug that wanders around during lighted day time hours, worms too.

For some species the occasional snail placed in the living foliage will give them a great 'hunt'.

I thought about snails as the torts seem to always hunt them down and love munching on them every time they are outdoors. The only reason I haven't been brave enough to put some in is the plants that already suffer great abuse from the torts. Snails are known to be voracious eaters and they multiply quickly. But.... The more I think about it the more tempted I am to pick some up in my garden. So far everything that I've brought in from my flower beds seems to be doing well, thriving. For some reason this year there are no pillbugs, I've found just 3 tiny ones and another maybe 1/2 cm long just the other day. It is good to see them when cleaning/turning the substrate. This year my garden seems to be just infested with all kinds of (some very pretty!) snails! I've never seen so many in the 19 years I've been gardening here! There were ALWAYS pillbugs though, and this year, there are almost none. Wonder if that has to do with the weather patterns, El Niño????

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Interesting about the snails. I over harvested my garden, I though, and still think that may be the case. I have European garden snails and them some other kind. That some other kind seems undesirable to the tortoises. I'll have to post an image of them.

I bought a colony of two types of pills bugs, some small white-ish one and some large purple-ish ones. The white ones do well with enclosures with lots of water the purple ones tend to drown easy. I don't think I have any more colonies of the whitish ones. The purple ones though inspire much interest to turn the soil for eating, by the tortoises in those enclosures.

 

[Prairie Mom]

I avoid snails for the simple reason that they spread quickly and eat the same food as my tortoise, but I totally agree with the other bugs mentioned. I also love to have the occasional spider to help with gnats.

As for cleaning, I have found my tortoise will actually avoid laying near her own feces. She won't even sleep in her hides if there is feces nearby, which seems pretty different from what I've heard other members say. So, I keep my enclosure extra clean and do scoop out substrate that has been soaked in urine etc. Because I'm always digging some out, I do have to "top off' my wood chips every so often and keep spare substrate handy.