Opinion on this bedding?

ZamTheMan

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I just need an opinion on these bedding options for my Sulcata Tortoise. She's around 2 years old if age/size make a difference. We had cypress mulch for a good while, but all of a sudden, as if over night, she started trying to eat her bedding randomly, and I've had to pull wood chips out of her mouth time and again and I'm afraid it'll make her sick so we took it out, and we're now using timothy hay until we find something better. We found these in Petsmart and they mention being good for exotic and/or non-aquatic reptiles. I just wanted to see if this bedding was OK for a substrate because I've read paper bedding isn't ideal for tortoises. Is one better than the other? Or should we use orchid or something else? We also have issues with her urinating in her house so something that absorbs smell like these claim that they do would be ideal as well. Thank you in advance.

Resized_20170807_191302.jpg Resized_20170807_191353.jpg
 

Tom

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Cedar gives off toxic fumes and the pine oils are not good. Both of those are far too dry.

Fine grade orchid bark works best, but we should try to figure out why your tortoise is eating the substrate.

Are you using red or infrared bulbs for night?
What do you normally feed your tortoise?
Any supplements? What and how often?
Mazuri?
 

ZamTheMan

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Infrared 75watts, the ones that glow purple for night. Her daylight is 100watts and also infrared. We normally feed her Zucchini, Squash, Spaghetti Squash, Acorn Squash, cooked Carrots, Mustard Greens and several other kinds of leafy greens. It all depends on what's available and cost per pound. Don't believe we give her supplements but we do have tortoise pellets we sprinkle in her food.

Now what I believe the cause of her suddenly trying to eat her cypress was because we tried mixing in baking soda into the chips because she was urinating in her house in hopes of getting rid of the smell (which it didn't). My mom said baking soda is a bit salty and it wouldn't hurt her which leads me to believe is why she just randomly started trying to eat the cypress a week or so after we started using the baking soda. She's an indoor tort so we're trying to cut back on something messy and absorbs smell. As I said, she just has timothy hay in her house from when we first got her until we find something better. We're afraid to use something like organic soil or the like because if she urinates (which is A LOT when she usually goes) it'll just make mud.
 

Tom

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Well you are doing all of the things that would cause a tortoise to eat it's substrate, so this should not be a surprise.

  • You should not be using colored bulbs at any time. It makes the world look red to them and messes with their heads. Use only white light for day time and keep it dark at night by using a CHE set on a thermostat to maintain warmth.
  • Your tortoises diet is not good. Grocery store produce lacks fiber and some tortoises will begin to eat substrate to make up for the missing fiber. Please read this: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/
  • Lack of minerals can sometimes cause this too. Some grocery store produce lacks calcium and has a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio. Not only are you feeding a lot of that stuff, you aren't supplementing to make up for the lack. The is a product called "MinerAll" made by a company called Sticky Tongue Farms. Its a mineral supplement. You can order it on-line. I and many others have used it to get a tortoise to stop eating substrate or rocks.
Please go into your user profile and put in your location, so we know where in the world you are. Different advice for Pensacola vs. Peoria.

What size enclosure are you using and how long is your tortoise? I ask because if a few pees and poop are soaking the entire thing, then it might be too small. The diet you are feeding is going to cause more pee and softer poop, so that is part of your issue too.

How often do you soak the tortoise? Most of them will poop and pee in the soak water. If you soak every day or every other, the tortoise won't deposit any waste into its enclosure.

I prefer fine grade orchid bark as a substrate for indoor sulcatas, but the tortoise in your avatar looks too big for an indoor enclosure.
 

Redfool

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Your sulcatas diet is way too wet. Their diet should be around 70% grasses/green leaf. These torts are sub- Saharan and get most of their minerals from soil. Calcium mineral supplements may stop the substrate eating. Sulcatas need lots of room, you have to realize you are raising the third largest tortoise in the world.
 

Yvonne G

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Neither of those is a good substrate. You want something that you can moisten (and the two you've shown put off toxic fumes when heated), like coco coir, orchid bark, even clean soil.
 

ZamTheMan

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Well you are doing all of the things that would cause a tortoise to eat it's substrate, so this should not be a surprise.

  • You should not be using colored bulbs at any time. It makes the world look red to them and messes with their heads. Use only white light for day time and keep it dark at night by using a CHE set on a thermostat to maintain warmth.
  • Your tortoises diet is not good. Grocery store produce lacks fiber and some tortoises will begin to eat substrate to make up for the missing fiber. Please read this: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/
  • Lack of minerals can sometimes cause this too. Some grocery store produce lacks calcium and has a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio. Not only are you feeding a lot of that stuff, you aren't supplementing to make up for the lack. The is a product called "MinerAll" made by a company called Sticky Tongue Farms. Its a mineral supplement. You can order it on-line. I and many others have used it to get a tortoise to stop eating substrate or rocks.
Please go into your user profile and put in your location, so we know where in the world you are. Different advice for Pensacola vs. Peoria.

What size enclosure are you using and how long is your tortoise? I ask because if a few pees and poop are soaking the entire thing, then it might be too small. The diet you are feeding is going to cause more pee and softer poop, so that is part of your issue too.

How often do you soak the tortoise? Most of them will poop and pee in the soak water. If you soak every day or every other, the tortoise won't deposit any waste into its enclosure.

I prefer fine grade orchid bark as a substrate for indoor sulcatas, but the tortoise in your avatar looks too big for an indoor enclosure.


The daylight bulb is a natural light one. We don't use the red ones anymore. It gives off heat and UV without the reddish color. The night is the one that glows a faint purple.

I'll look into the supplements. I was under the impression too much calcium was bad. What can I give her if I can't get the supplements right away?

If her diet actually requires more greens over veggies, that's fine. She adores the various patches of clover and butter leaves we have out back, and our yard is clean of toxins and weed killers. I wouldn't let her eat the grass otherwise.

Her enclosure is 34" long, 24" high, and 23" in width. Gamera is about 15-15.5" long, last she weighed was about 12lbs so I'd say she's possibly 15lbs or more now. When she goes it doesn't literally fill the house, she just ends up peeing a lot and it soaks into the chips and the smell doesn't go away until we change out her substrate.

I'll look for where I can change my location. I'm on the east coast of the US, near Pittsburgh, PA.

I soak around once a day for about 20-30min in warm water. She usually poops and pees outside, rarely peeing in the tub.
 

ZamTheMan

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Neither of those is a good substrate. You want something that you can moisten (and the two you've shown put off toxic fumes when heated), like coco coir, orchid bark, even clean soil.

And this is why I checked to see what others had to say.
 

ZamTheMan

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Your sulcatas diet is way too wet. Their diet should be around 70% grasses/green leaf. These torts are sub- Saharan and get most of their minerals from soil. Calcium mineral supplements may stop the substrate eating. Sulcatas need lots of room, you have to realize you are raising the third largest tortoise in the world.

I'll be sure to up the greens then. She loves clover but gets tired of butter leaves if I give them to her too much.
 

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