Hello anyone who reads this,
What I would like to know is how can I make his substrate more burrow friendly? I've allotted about 6 inches of ground to him, but I've noticed it A. dries out fairly fast, and B. when dried does not retain it's shape. I have purely coco coir in there, with a bit of reptibark (like wood chips, I don't remember the exact brand but I've been using them since like April or so with no issues whatsoever. What is the ratio I can use to make the ground more burrow friendly? I'm not necessarily looking for massive tunnels, purely because that's unrealistic, but is there any way to encourage more submerging on his part? I've heard of some people using play sand, among other factors, but is there other things as well?
This is what I'd mean = 2 parts coco coir, 1 part play sand (or similar), .5 parts reptibark / sphagnum moss (I have all these readily available, except for the sand which I'd have to order)
^That is just an example
Of course I don't know the real ratio to it, if anyone could help me out with this it would be very, very appreciated.
Also side note, how can I dis-encourage him scratching at his walls? It's not that big of a deal, it just makes it harder to focus while doing remote classes and such (my desk area is like 5 feet from his enclosure).
Please let me know, it's a great help for me. I've tried looking this up but the only thing that comes up is things for Tarantulas, which I think are a bit different from Tortoises, lol.
Thanks, PiL
What I would like to know is how can I make his substrate more burrow friendly? I've allotted about 6 inches of ground to him, but I've noticed it A. dries out fairly fast, and B. when dried does not retain it's shape. I have purely coco coir in there, with a bit of reptibark (like wood chips, I don't remember the exact brand but I've been using them since like April or so with no issues whatsoever. What is the ratio I can use to make the ground more burrow friendly? I'm not necessarily looking for massive tunnels, purely because that's unrealistic, but is there any way to encourage more submerging on his part? I've heard of some people using play sand, among other factors, but is there other things as well?
This is what I'd mean = 2 parts coco coir, 1 part play sand (or similar), .5 parts reptibark / sphagnum moss (I have all these readily available, except for the sand which I'd have to order)
^That is just an example
Of course I don't know the real ratio to it, if anyone could help me out with this it would be very, very appreciated.
Also side note, how can I dis-encourage him scratching at his walls? It's not that big of a deal, it just makes it harder to focus while doing remote classes and such (my desk area is like 5 feet from his enclosure).
Please let me know, it's a great help for me. I've tried looking this up but the only thing that comes up is things for Tarantulas, which I think are a bit different from Tortoises, lol.
Thanks, PiL