Handling multiple species

Lady Ashthorn

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Hey everyone, just have a question when it comes to having multiple tortoises of different species. I have a baby redfoot (Ezra) at the moment but I may have an opportunity to adopt a baby Hermann's at some point in the future. I am starting to wear waterproof gardening gloves when working with Ez due to an allergy to his substrate. What I am wondering is will I be able to handle and work with the substrate of one seperate enclosure and then the other? Or will I need to clean my hands/trade gloves between setups? I have seen online videos of people washing their hands between handling tortoises and turtles which are in different enclosures or are different species. Thanks for the help!
 

wellington

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Yes it's best to have seperate stuff dishes, gloves, etc for each different species so to not spread anything between each species that they have never been exposed to and would possibly not be able to fight off.
 

Lady Ashthorn

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Yes it's best to have seperate stuff dishes, gloves, etc for each different species so to not spread anything between each species that they have never been exposed to and would possibly not be able to fight off.
Thank you! It may be irksome, but its worth it for everyone to stay heathy! ?
 

Lady Ashthorn

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I'm using coconut coir from a Canadian company, I can't remember what the company on the packaging was called other than it had a brown T-Rex on it, sorry. I bought a big ol' brick of it and have it dampened in a bin, so I can't return it now. I'm going to try and use it all up- which could be a while- I need to look into something else for the future which isn't coco based.

On another note; is cleaning with baby wipes sufficient to disinfect between handaling different tortoises?
 

Lady Ashthorn

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Thank you! It may be irksome, but its worth it for
HA HA! I found a photo of it. It's Jurassic reptile products "Jurassic Fiber."

 

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ZenHerper

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...

On another note; is cleaning with baby wipes sufficient to disinfect between handaling different tortoises?
The disinfecting ingredients in baby wipes are very mild. You want to use soap and water...a liquid dish soap that is ammonia-based will work against most microbes of concern.


If you have any kind of tree nut allergy or sensitivity, that would account for your reactivity to the coco coir (coconut husk). Allergic reactions tend to worsen over time - I'd switch over to fir bark or cypress sooner rather than later, at least for a test in one enclosure. If you have a quantity of the coir, advertise it here or on Kijiji, etc.. Even gardeners this time of year are using it for germinating/starting seedlings.
 

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