substrate

Best substrate to use that dosent dry out and cause dust please ? Using life bio but constantly drying out Horsefield tortoise

Hey everyone!! I reviewed many threads on substrate but didn’t find anything recently posted (may have missed it) and things are always changing!!! Is there a brand of orchid bark/forest floor that you all prefer more than others?? I have an adult Russian tortoise he’s about 7 years old (this is...

While shopping for fir bark I came across something called fir bark mulch. How is this different from normal fir bark and is this suitable for a year old greek? Or is this just a fancier way of saying fir bark? https://a.co/d/0a4O3RDJ

Today while cleaning Edwards enclosure, I found a small white worm under his food dish, in the coco coir. It was maybe 1-2 cm long (that is 0,39 to 0,78 inches). Could it be parasitic? I mean would a parasitic worm survive outside his body for some time? There was no poop nearby. Should I take...

Hi folks. Here is my little one - Charlie. He/she is about a year old and lives in a temperature-controlled indoor enclosure with orchid bark substrate. In posting pics of Charlie on tortoise FB groups, I have been attacked by people telling me that I’m basically killing my DT by having orchid...

I have a 5 year old female leopard tortoise housed in a insulated shed, she has top soil and sand as her substrate, but its causing a lot of dust and recently on occasion sometimes breathes loudly and became quite lethargic only comes out to eat and the goes back to hide. Im worried this mix...

I live in Mexico and I'm looking forward to buying a baby tortoise. I bought a couple of bags of what I think is Orchid bark, but after opening one I found it to be much darker than what I've seen on several pictures. Looks like theres some kind of dirt coating the pieces (they don't get any...

I'm designing a larger enclosure for my 2 cherry heads (who live separated). Right now I have 7in of cypress mulch, which seem seems to be working well. But they are only 3 or so and still growing. I'm hoping for this new enclosure to be suitable for when they are fully grown. Is 7in deep enough...

Hi everyone! I’m a teen and I’ve had my Hermann’s tortoise living in a 40-gallon tank for about two years now. He’s about 6 inches wide and 5 inches long. His diet mostly includes collard greens, dandelion greens, and sometimes flowers when they bloom. Occasionally, I give him some arugula and...

Hi! I have checked and read and lot of posts about substrate for outdoor enclosures, but there is so much information out there that I am confused about the best approach, and I want to make sure we build the best possible environment for our tortoise. For context, we have a 10 year old...

We've posted in the past about dealing with Fungus Gnats, those pesky little flies that come with having a damp enclosure. We tried a lot of the suggestions, and only had limited success until recently. Let me run through what we've tried and what we've finally settled on. Note the Amazon links...

Hi there I owned a hermann tortoise for around 14 years and I’m bit confused since I owned her she always been on grass pellets i did try her on top soil like I was suggested by someone from a Facebook group but she wasn’t happy and wouldn’t move anywhere. just need some help with what is...

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...

I’ve researched until I’m numb, I have a good idea of what I want to get in substrate. Reading reviews online 90% of the suppliers are reported to have mold, bugs, holes in bags on their products. Amazon seems bad with ripped bags, ants, mold. Slim to no reviews for the local hardware stores...

(I'm in the UK) So I'm hoping that, in the next couple of weeks, I'll be the proud owner of a Hermann's hatchling, and naturally I've been building a vivarium for it to spend the first few years of life in before graduating to a full table. Said Viv is your average 4x2x2 made of MDF with a...

Hello everyone! This is my first post on this forum so excuse me if I make any mistakes, I’m also on mobile. Basically to explain this post: Sometimes I feel like a really terrible tortoise owner even though I do my research I feel like I’m not giving him a good enough quality of life. For...

I’ve a two year old Greek tortoise and I’ve heard to use orchid bark; is this safe?

Hi guys, I am new here. I have done tons of research on this forum but I still have some questions to make sure I’m doing everything correctly. I am going to explain how I plan on setting up its enclosure until it gets big/old enough to have it outside. The desert tortoise I have is a hatchling...

Hello! I received my baby russian tort 3 days ago and every time they go into their enclosure, they get super messy and their face gets covered in the substrate (as they love burrowing). i’m a little worried because i don’t want any issues with their health and my fear is that the substrate...

Hey. I live in Ireland so due to the climate I’m unable to house my tortoise outdoors. I’ve come aware that the current substrate I’ve just bought isn’t suitable (pet shop recommendations, should’ve known better on my part). I’ve had my tortoise for less than a year and she (I use this pronoun...