Just some general enclosure questions

[Treebon]

Today my tortoise made his first waste in his enclosure. It was just urine so I scooped out the affected sand and wiped off the side of the enclosure he peed on. Is that good enough? How often should I completely remove the substrate and clean out the whole thing and put new substrate in? I also wonder if he had peed before without me knowing, is that harmful to him if I don't detect it and clean it?

 

[chadk]

I do light spot cleaning a few times a week. I change our the entire enclosure (indoor only) a few times a year.

What is your substrate? Sand?

One thing that can help is to have different areas in your enclosure with different types of substrate. In mine, I have areas around the eating and watering area that are all slate\tile. It is very easy to keep these areas clean. Another area is mulch\shavings. And then there is the digging\burrowing area that is soil + peat moss + spag moss + eco-earth. This is where the humid hide is as well. I keep the slate\tile area fairly clean, but just barely check the other areas now and then (the mostly poo and pee around the water and food areas anyway).

 

[Treebon]

My substrate is a mixture of sand and peat moss, and I did the spot cleaning where he peed so I guess it will be okay.

 

[Madkins007]

What is your ratio of moss to sand? And, if I missed it, what kind of tortoise?

With my Red-foots, the urine is mostly water and soaks into the substrate before I can do anything. I don't worry about it until things smell, but in my 'bioactive substrate' things rarely smell!

 

[Treebon]

Its probably either 50-50 or a little more sand than substrate. I'm not entirely sure though.

 

[chadk]

Russians really don't do well on sand. I stopped using any at all. A little is OK, but not really needed. There are much better things. Sand gets dusty too fast and can irritate the eyes. Regular dirt mixed with the pete moss would be much better.

 

[shellfreak]

russians also do very well with cypress mulch. its easy for them to borrow and it makes cleaning relatively easy. during the winter i keep my russians on cypress mulch and clean their enclosure every time i feed them. the slate advice is very good advice. i have found that my russians enjoy giong to the bathroom while eating, so it tends to get all over the slate rock, its easy to run it under some hot water to clean it.