Substrate Allergy

[victor52]

Hello, i was hoping if you guys can give me an opinion on some problems I started to have.
First off! I have been stocking on this forum for a while now. I'm thankful for you guys, for you have lowered the learning curve for me as a tortoise owner.
This is my problem:
I have had Sheldon for a little bit over a year now and love him so much. Lately I have become allergic to his substrate. It makes my hands itch and kinda break out. It's not just him. I have completely switched over to paper bedding for my hamster because my skin seems to not be able to handle wood products.

It got so bad this week that I went to pet smart and bought reptile carpet. (He lives in a zoomed tortoise house thingy... Not huge, but he gets put out everyday after work till nightfall in my yard. I bring him in because there are coyotes around.) If you are familiar with the zoomed layout, their is basically two rooms. I carpeted the open area and put the cypress bedding in the other (his hideout.) Is this okay? I just avoid his den to avoid touching the bedding... Can I just use pure sphagnum here?

I don't want my little shelled friend to suffer! He didn't know what to think of the carpet the first day and just stared at me from his bedded hideout. Now he doesn't care and does his normal thing. He has pooped on it a couple times and I just take it out and give it a little scrub. Pretty easy! His temperature is still okay. Humidity is 60% on the open carpeted section and 80% in the hideout.
Your opinions are welcomed,
Thanks
Victor

 

[ascott]

I love the peat moss for entire substrate for the torts that have indoor enclosures here...

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/outdoors/landscaping-supplies/premier/peat-moss-3-cu-ft-53928.html

 

[Vishnu2]

I personally have a friend who is allergic to cypress mulch, aspen and a few others. She uses the green reptile carpet and has great luck with it. However, she has to check often and make sure that no nails have gotten snagged into the carpet. Other than that it works great. The tortoise humidity is fine and everyone seems to live in harmony at her house..

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Victor:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

If you can somehow protect the wood of the habitat, you can just use dirt from outside. Just be sure its clean and free of pesticides and herbicides.

May we know appx. where in the world you are?

 

[victor52]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies. He seems fine with the carpet. He is big enough that his nails don't catch. As of 30mins ago my order of the three Eco earth blocks came in the mail. I read here that some tortoises have trouble with it getting in their eyes. I see now for myself that I think this to be true. He hates it!

Ascott since peat moss, at least to my understanding is just finely shredded sphagnum could real long fibered sphagnum be used. Just to cut back on the mess.

Hi Yvonne, I'm down here at the tip of south Texas. Hot and humid! Great for tortoises, sadly not so much for me...
I prepared my habitat's wood prior with some polyurethane and let it air appropriately before getting Sheldon. I'm trying to avoid dirt because when I went to homedepot the only thing they had that didn't have pesticides and fertilization had the o'natural stuff. It smelled terrible.

Thanks