Best Substrate ? Help?

[cosmomom]

I have beenusing alfalfa pellets for my 6 month old Hermann - that is what the shop told me to use. I have been readingthat they are not good for the tortoise and I shoudl be using something different. I have seen producr called - eco-bricks? on this forum -- Please advise what is best for my little guy. What exactly is "eco-brick".. thanks

 

[Yvonne G]

Eco brick, coconut coir, Bed-A-Beast...its all compressed coconut coir. You can find it in a brick form at pet stores. You put the brick in a 5 gallon bucket of hot water and wait several minutes. Eventually the brick falls apart in the water. Then you drain off the water and mix in some clean dirt or some Play Sand (purchased at a home improvement store for children's sand boxes). Mix it up good. When you squeeze a handful you want it to hold its shape, but not be dripping water.

Quite a few keepers of the Hermann's tortoise will use aspen bedding. This is usually packaged up for snake-keepers. You can't wet the aspen, however you can provide a humid hiding place...no aspen, but moistened sphagnum moss inside the hide...aspen all over the habitat, but not inside the hide.

Yvonne

 

[alfiethetortoise]

I use a mix of 50/50 organic soil and play sand which i have around an inch deed. In Alfie's hide and thearea just outside i add 1cm od Aspen (used for snakes). I add apx 8floz of water to the soil/sand ever 2-3 days as required to keep it nice and moist. Alfie likes to dig and in his hide usually digs himself a little hole anyway. I think some peope use Aspen bedding in the whole table/enclosure but i have reservations about the dryness (though i am only a new herman keeper so please dont take my word as gospel, its purely my instinct).

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I like cypress mulch the best. It's just so hard to find....