outdoor enclosure substrate for a rock eater

crimson_lotus

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
1,385
Location (City and/or State)
Massachusetts
I have a little patch reserved for my tortoise in the backyard with some hibiscus, hosta, and grasses planted in an 8 x 8 space. There are a lot of rocks in the backyard as the house was built on a boulder, and I suppose the excess pebbles from the initial blast remain.

Anyway, she seems to like eating rocks and I'm hesitant to leave her outside alone if she will be doing this. I sprinkle MinerAll on her food about 3x a week thinking she eats rocks due to a potential mineral deficiency, but this does not seem to be the case.

Has anyone sifted all of the rocks out of their outdoor tortoise enclosure? Should I just pour maybe half of a foot of orchid bark over what I already have? I want to make sure that whatever I do will keep the plants alive as well. I would also like to add that Charlotte is a 6ish year old Redfoot and her species isn't particularly known for excess digging.

Any feedback is welcome on what I could do to solve this issue and keep myself from worrying while she is outside on her own.

Thanks in advance!
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,264
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
What species are we talking about and what size and age?
What do you normally feed your tortoise? If its not a mineral deficiency, sometimes it can be from a fiber deficiency. I see this most often in tortoises that are fed a lot of grocery store foods.
 

crimson_lotus

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
1,385
Location (City and/or State)
Massachusetts
Hi Tom,

She's a Redfoot, about 6ish years old, about 1ft shell length and 6 inches wide.

I normally feed her grocery store greens and both regular/LS mazuri 2x a week, as I live in MA and there's really only 3 months for our "summer" season when we can grow anything. I'm also known to kill plants.
 

crimson_lotus

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
1,385
Location (City and/or State)
Massachusetts
To elaborate on grocery store greens - escarole, endive, radicchio, collards, dandelion greens, watercress, squash, zucchini - she is a Whole Foods tortoise that doesn't eat lettuce all the time. Not that it helps with her rock eating.
 

wellington

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Tortoise Club
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
49,660
Location (City and/or State)
Chicago, Illinois, USA
To play it safe, I would add more of the bark. I don't think RF are big diggers that I remember ever reading. Then take a daily look through just incase a few rocks appear. Some how, bugs probably, shifting earth, rains etc, they do seem to pop up out of know where.
 

New Posts

Top