Best brand for Organic Topsoil

StaffordC

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
35
Location (City and/or State)
San Luis Obispo, CA
Hello everyone,

This is my first post here and I have been reading all over to try and find the best brand for Organic Topsoil or Organic Soil to mix with coconut coir in my Ibera Greek tortoise hatchling enclosure. I live in California, and I know that specific states have their own "blends" for top soil, and all of the Organic Topsoil and Organic Soil that I have found in CA have steer manure or chicken manure in them. I am keeping my hatchling inside, my room in specific, and I don't want it to smell like poop in my room for obvious reasons. Can anyone point me in the right direction on what to do? I appreciate any and all answers in advance. Thank You!
 

Minority2

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2018
Messages
1,052
Location (City and/or State)
Tortoise Hell
Hello everyone,

This is my first post here and I have been reading all over to try and find the best brand for Organic Topsoil or Organic Soil to mix with coconut coir in my Ibera Greek tortoise hatchling enclosure. I live in California, and I know that specific states have their own "blends" for top soil, and all of the Organic Topsoil and Organic Soil that I have found in CA have steer manure or chicken manure in them. I am keeping my hatchling inside, my room in specific, and I don't want it to smell like poop in my room for obvious reasons. Can anyone point me in the right direction on what to do? I appreciate any and all answers in advance. Thank You!

The short answer is that no commercially available organic top soil is going to be safe enough for tortoises. There's just too many additives, natural and or unnatural that can cause impactation and other severe side effects to tortoises.

The long answer is that while certain individual substrate material by themselves are theoretically safe such as sand which is a material Greeks are used to dealing with in their natural environment, when combined with other variables in an indoor/outdoor enclosure/captive, inescapable enclosure of any kind, the substance becomes dangerous because of it's unintended use. While yes tortoises do transverse through and may live in certain sandy territories, they're probably not foraging in that same area but in another area, much further away, with more plant life which means they're not likely gobbling mouthfuls of sand on a daily basis in the wild.

Materials such as sand or perlite, commonly found in organic soils can and will become dangerous if it becomes one of the main substances in a captive, inescapable enclosure because it would be unavoidable.

For example:
1. Food scraps may fall off your designated feeding dish and or tile and will inevitably fall into the substrate. Tortoises will eat that up with no regard or care for what they're consuming. Impact hazard.
2. Tortoises will eat their poo from time to time. They will poo in their substrate and happily eat it up. Impact hazard.
3. Tortoise owners that use red bulbs might cause their tortoises to see things that look like food but isn't in their substrate. Prolonged exposure would make them easily mistake substrate as food. Impact hazard.
4. Even if the owner actively cleans up messes there's going to instances where the tortoise is just going to be that much faster at gobbling something up before the owner finds a fault. In time, that's going to create a mighty big health issue for that sneaky tortoise.

These are just a few examples of why it's much easier just to tell people to simply not use any of substrates that have a possibility to cause harm to tortoises. It's just not worth the time and effort to make them work when other substrates such as fir bark and coco coir is so readily available.

Your outdoor garden may be a safe alternative if it is in fact pesticide and additive free.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,269
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Hello everyone,

This is my first post here and I have been reading all over to try and find the best brand for Organic Topsoil or Organic Soil to mix with coconut coir in my Ibera Greek tortoise hatchling enclosure. I live in California, and I know that specific states have their own "blends" for top soil, and all of the Organic Topsoil and Organic Soil that I have found in CA have steer manure or chicken manure in them. I am keeping my hatchling inside, my room in specific, and I don't want it to smell like poop in my room for obvious reasons. Can anyone point me in the right direction on what to do? I appreciate any and all answers in advance. Thank You!
Hello and welcome.

Soil should never be used as a tortoise substrate. That is old out-rated advice. SOild is made form composted yard waste and there is not way to know what it is made of.

Give this a read:
 

StaffordC

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
35
Location (City and/or State)
San Luis Obispo, CA
The short answer is that no commercially available organic top soil is going to be safe enough for tortoises. There's just too many additives, natural and or unnatural that can cause impactation and other severe side effects to tortoises.

The long answer is that while certain individual substrate material by themselves are theoretically safe such as sand which is a material Greeks are used to dealing with in their natural environment, when combined with other variables in an indoor/outdoor enclosure/captive, inescapable enclosure of any kind, the substance becomes dangerous because of it's unintended use. While yes tortoises do transverse through and may live in certain sandy territories, they're probably not foraging in that same area but in another area, much further away, with more plant life which means they're not likely gobbling mouthfuls of sand on a daily basis in the wild.

Materials such as sand or perlite, commonly found in organic soils can and will become dangerous if it becomes one of the main substances in a captive, inescapable enclosure because it would be unavoidable.

For example:
1. Food scraps may fall off your designated feeding dish and or tile and will inevitably fall into the substrate. Tortoises will eat that up with no regard or care for what they're consuming. Impact hazard.
2. Tortoises will eat their poo from time to time. They will poo in their substrate and happily eat it up. Impact hazard.
3. Tortoise owners that use red bulbs might cause their tortoises to see things that look like food but isn't in their substrate. Prolonged exposure would make them easily mistake substrate as food. Impact hazard.
4. Even if the owner actively cleans up messes there's going to instances where the tortoise is just going to be that much faster at gobbling something up before the owner finds a fault. In time, that's going to create a mighty big health issue for that sneaky tortoise.

These are just a few examples of why it's much easier just to tell people to simply not use any of substrates that have a possibility to cause harm to tortoises. It's just not worth the time and effort to make them work when other substrates such as fir bark and coco coir is so readily available.

Your outdoor garden may be a safe alternative if it is in fact pesticide and additive free.

Thank you very much for the informative reply to my topic. I just decided to go with coconut coir substrate and hand pack it down to try and minimize the amount that it will stick to him. I am also looking at getting some peat moss and mixing the coconut coir and the peat moss together to form a substrate, but I am still on the fence about doing that.

Thank You again
 

Golden Greek Tortoise 567

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Messages
1,756
Location (City and/or State)
Colorado Springs,CO
Thank you very much for the informative reply to my topic. I just decided to go with coconut coir substrate and hand pack it down to try and minimize the amount that it will stick to him. I am also looking at getting some peat moss and mixing the coconut coir and the peat moss together to form a substrate, but I am still on the fence about doing that.

Thank You again
Peat moss also isn’t recommended, tortoises can eat it and become impacted.
 

StaffordC

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
35
Location (City and/or State)
San Luis Obispo, CA
Hello and welcome.

Soil should never be used as a tortoise substrate. That is old out-rated advice. SOild is made form composted yard waste and there is not way to know what it is made of.

Give this a read:

Thank you for the welcome, Tom, and I look forward to being more active on this forum as my hatchling grows over the years! I just read that entire post you made, and it answered every possible question that came to mind. Thank you for taking the time to write that forum entry, and thank you for linking it to me.

Best wishes.
 
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