Reptile carpet for enclosure

[mellie101]

Hi, sorry if this has been covered before. I've just taken our 7month old Greek to vets due to loose stool with stones in and string. Strange boy. He does appear to be eating a lot of his substrate. We mix playsand and compressed coconut fiber/plantation soil 50/50. The vet said to change to Reptile Carpet to stop him eating the stone and fibre. I told the vet that our little guy does burrow in his dark part of the tortoise house when he goes to bed. He suggested that maybe doing the same substrate that we use now but just in the small area he sleeps at night. He always beds down in the same place.
Any advice or experience re: the reptile carpet is greatly received.

We have meds to de-worm the little guy and was told to put down apple sauce first to see if he liked it. Yep its gone. At least we know there isn't much of a problem with that.

Thanks everybody.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Mel:

Do you keep a red light on during the day? The red light changes the way the tortoise sees things and makes substrate look like something to eat.

You might also try sprinkling some Miner-all over the food 3 or 4 times a week. Miner-all is made by Sticky Tongue Farms and adds the minerals the tortoise might not be getting from his diet.

http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-food-supplements/11442-504800/miner-all.html

There occasionally is a tortoise who just won't stop eating the substrate. My sister has one of those. She's tried everything to get the tortoise to not eat the substrate. She finally had to resort to keeping the tortoise on reptile carpet (with short or no pile). But try other things first, because having a substrate to dig into is comforting to a tortoise.

 

[mellie101]

Hi. Thank you. I would still keep the bedded area a mixture of soil and coconut coif and tbh he really only burrows at bedtime. The digs out a sort of trench and sleeps in there. I've never seen him really do it in the main area. He eats and bathes in there (and eats substrate) I'm thinking of eliminating the playsand and just trying him with the forest soil/coif mixture and trying that. Have read people saying it can irritate their eyes so that was why I was a bit reluctant.

He has the UV lamp but won't touch anything that has any powder etc added to it. The calcium supplement drove me nuts. We put a cuttle bone in which he nibbles at. Is the Miner-al something you can hide in the food (mix)?

thanks again

 

[Yvonne G]

It's a powder, just like the calcium supplement. You only use a small amount, just a pinch between your thumb and forefinger.