OK Some Sand in Soil/Sphagnum Substrate?

[Oxalis]

I have a 20-year-old male Russian we're about to put in our brand new enclosure. It looks like some sand got mixed in with the soil we bought from the hardware store, but this only happened with one of the two bags of dirt we bought. There is also a thick layer of sphagnum peat moss on top of it, so when you think about it, the amount of sand in the substrate is pretty small. From doing a small amount of reading on the forums, I'm little shaky about the sand being in the substrate so I thought I would start a thread in the hopes of decreasing my anxiety, even though he's not a baby. I can plan to swap the substrate out next spring after we see how the temperature/light/humidity factors all go this winter (my boyfriend and I are in a new house). I know there's probably some sand/rock fragments naturally occurring in the outside dirt so I assume he'll be OK. He's also very good about not eating what he shouldn't be. Does this sound all right?

Our enclosure: http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-80648.html

 

[ascott]

I personally do not like sand (have had a tort in my care that was impacted solid with sand) however, with that being said, some folks here use it as a small part/percentage of their substrate and appear to like it....I would say that if your ratio is like 25% sand to 75% earthen material then likely all will be aok

 

[Tom]

It will most likely be fine in such a small percentage. Just do your best to make sure he doesn't ingest it as it sticks to the food every day. I like to use terra cotta saucers for both the food and the water. It does a pretty god job of keeping the substrate off the food.

 

[Jacqui]

It's going to be fine. Most soils naturally have sand as a part of them.