Bedding/Substrate Query

[TortMom6]

This may sound ignorant but bear with me a minute here.

It is true that being outside is best for tortoises, then it follows to reason that the ground (dirt/grass/outside stuff) is the best bedding/substrate. Right?

If the above statement is true then would the best bedding/substrate for an indoor enclosure (for winter and tortoises too young to be outside 100% of the time) be the same ground (dirt/grass/outside stuff) as they would be on outdoors?

Has anyone tried anything like this? Having the same outdoor ground (dirt/grass/outside stuff) in an indoor enclosure. How would one go about this in the first place? All the dirt you buy is loose and crumbly, while the ground (dirt/grass/outside stuff) is hard and more firm. I would like to try this, but I don't know how to begin. How does the outside ground (dirt/grass/outside stuff) get hard? How could that be recreated indoors?

Perhaps I am crazy but it made sense in my brain, and sounded like a logical and good idea.

Finally, a picture of Gilbert Fitzwilliam (3 weeks old) having some supervised outdoor time. Because...well who wouldn't want to see a picture of a baby tortoise.

Thank you for your input!
Kayla

 

[Tom]

Not ignorant at all. Perfectly reasonable.

I have done this before and it can work, but it tends to be messy, and it also depends on the composition of each person's outside "dirt". Indoor substrate should be a bit damp to give little ones some moderate humidity. When I dampen my dirt here, I get mud. It is much easier for me to provide the correct growing conditions for my babies when I use fine grade orchid bark.

 

[TortMom6]

Yes, I suppose humidity concerns would make this difficult, especially for little ones. Didn't think about the whole wet dirt turns to mud thing! Yuck!