edenofgarden
New Member
Hi,
We’re having a major infestation of soil mites in our Russian Tortoise’s substrate, and they are crawling all over him as well. They do not jump or hop, they are microscopic in size; and move very fast. He has a large indoor enclosure, the substrate is a combination of organic topsoil and coco coir. Rather than completely change out the substrate, we were thinking about possibly using food safe diatomaceous earth. But we’re concerned about the respiratory risks to our RT. We were thinking of moving him to a smaller temporary enclosure while we treat his substrate with the food safe DE, then return him after a while. My questions are: is food safe DE truly safe for tortoises, if they inadvertently ingest it in the substrate? And how long should we wait before returning him to the enclosure, is there a safe timeframe? Also, when using food safe DE, do you mix it into the substrate or does it lay on top of the substrate? Thank you in advance for any insight.
We’re having a major infestation of soil mites in our Russian Tortoise’s substrate, and they are crawling all over him as well. They do not jump or hop, they are microscopic in size; and move very fast. He has a large indoor enclosure, the substrate is a combination of organic topsoil and coco coir. Rather than completely change out the substrate, we were thinking about possibly using food safe diatomaceous earth. But we’re concerned about the respiratory risks to our RT. We were thinking of moving him to a smaller temporary enclosure while we treat his substrate with the food safe DE, then return him after a while. My questions are: is food safe DE truly safe for tortoises, if they inadvertently ingest it in the substrate? And how long should we wait before returning him to the enclosure, is there a safe timeframe? Also, when using food safe DE, do you mix it into the substrate or does it lay on top of the substrate? Thank you in advance for any insight.