Repticarpet or natural substrate

[Pebbles&Petunias]

Hey guys,

So it's been awhile since I have posted anything on the forum but I was wondering how people feel about repticarpet for their torts? I have two tiny leopards in the same table right now. My other tort is downstairs and they are upstairs as it is warmer upstairs and they need a lot of heat being babies and all. The reason I was thinking about switching is because I am home sick today and went upstairs to feed the Leo's and came up to their table being destroyed by one of my cats. (I usually have a mesh cover on it but I must have forgotten to put it back when I was cleaning the table the other day.) Not knowing if they went pee in the substrate I quickly removed all the dirt. As my husband has the car today I was going to walk over to the pet store and get some eco earth. (I thought I had soil but it ended up being a bag of orchard bark. And the closest place to get top soil is to far for me to be walking, especially because I had surgery on Monday and probably shouldn't be walking anywhere for that matter.) So in the time being I put a towel down in the table and put all their accessories back. I then noticed my smaller of the two stuck his head out and laid on the towel like a pillow. They seem to really enjoy the softness of the towel. So I was wondering of you think I should try the towel or repticarpet and see if they like it. (That way I won't have to worry about my cats using the table as a potty.) If you think natural substrate would be better that's no problem my cats don't get in the table unless I leave the top off which I won't forget to do again haha. Sorry this post is so long. Any suggestions or opinions would be appreciated.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

That reptile "carpet" gets nasty with no good way to get it clean.
A big old bag of orchid bark is a couple of bucks and you can spot/clump clean it as needed.

 

[MPRC]

I could never get the humidity up with repti carpet when I used it with my Tokays. Either it was a swimming pool or way too low.

Also be careful with the towels. I used to wrap up my dragon after his baths and sometimes leave the towel in his cage for a bit just out of convenience. I came in one day to him desperately trying to get it out of his mouth because he tried to taste test it and it got stuck on his tongue or in his teeth. I did sew pillows for my iguana though, he liked having something to put his head on at night so I would swap them out weekly.

 

[Pebbles&Petunias]

Cleaning is not a worry really, I typically have them on approximately 1/2 organic top soil and about 1/4 orchard bark and 1/4 coco coir. Cleaning is absolutely not a big deal for me. (I would rather clean a tortoise enclosure than my tree frog enclosure any day haha.) And I understand with the carpet getting dirty cause I keep my beardies on carpet, but a trip through the washing machine cleans their carpet just fine. They just really seemed to like the towel as it is really soft. So I was wondering if anyone else has had their torts like towels/carpet more then natural substrate. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Jodie]

I would not use towels. Baby leopards need high humidity. You can't achieve this with towels. Trying to eat it is another problem. They could ingest strings from it. I certainly think it is ok As a temporary measure though. FYI it doesn't happen as often with cats as dogs, but a cat can chew up a baby pretty good.

 

[Pebbles&Petunias]

I have three cats. Two of them have never shown interest in any of my reptiles. The other, who is the one who messed up the table, I am confident would not chew up any of my other animals. They have been raised from kittens around my other pets. They know what they are. I am not saying it isn't impossible or anything. He is a cat after all, it could happen, and I take precautions to keep the cats out of all my enclosures. But that is not something I would expect or am afraid of. And yeah that's a good point with the humidity and the strings. I thought about carpet because it doesn't have the strings. I kept my first tortie on carpet for the first little bit I had her because her bones in her legs we're somewhat deformed. The previous owners kept her on very fine sand with no uvb for the first 2 years of her life. So I kept her on carpet so she would have a hard surface to walk on so I could try to get her to use her legs to walk instead of scoot her body. In my opinion it helped a tremendous amount because it made her have to get used to using her legs on a sturdy floor aside from sand she was pretty much swimming in. She is a Greek though and doesn't really need to much humidity. I have her on natural substrate now because she has grown A LOT and her legs aren't super wonky anymore. Thanks for the reply.

 

[W Shaw]

Mine wouldn't be happy on carpet. He loves to burrow.