Substrate Mixture?

[PiL71]

Hello anyone who reads this,

What I would like to know is how can I make his substrate more burrow friendly? I've allotted about 6 inches of ground to him, but I've noticed it A. dries out fairly fast, and B. when dried does not retain it's shape. I have purely coco coir in there, with a bit of reptibark (like wood chips, I don't remember the exact brand but I've been using them since like April or so with no issues whatsoever. What is the ratio I can use to make the ground more burrow friendly? I'm not necessarily looking for massive tunnels, purely because that's unrealistic, but is there any way to encourage more submerging on his part? I've heard of some people using play sand, among other factors, but is there other things as well?

This is what I'd mean = 2 parts coco coir, 1 part play sand (or similar), .5 parts reptibark / sphagnum moss (I have all these readily available, except for the sand which I'd have to order)
^That is just an example
Of course I don't know the real ratio to it, if anyone could help me out with this it would be very, very appreciated.

Also side note, how can I dis-encourage him scratching at his walls? It's not that big of a deal, it just makes it harder to focus while doing remote classes and such (my desk area is like 5 feet from his enclosure).

Please let me know, it's a great help for me. I've tried looking this up but the only thing that comes up is things for Tarantulas, which I think are a bit different from Tortoises, lol.

Thanks, PiL

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings. What kind of tortoise do you have? I really dont think that you will be able to find a recipe for a substrate mix that will permit burrowing. Sand is never recommended here on the TFO. What kind of “humid” hides do you have? How large of an enclosure?

Happy Torting

 

[mo.thetortoise]

Hello anyone who reads this,

What I would like to know is how can I make his substrate more burrow friendly? I've allotted about 6 inches of ground to him, but I've noticed it A. dries out fairly fast, and B. when dried does not retain it's shape. I have purely coco coir in there, with a bit of reptibark (like wood chips, I don't remember the exact brand but I've been using them since like April or so with no issues whatsoever. What is the ratio I can use to make the ground more burrow friendly? I'm not necessarily looking for massive tunnels, purely because that's unrealistic, but is there any way to encourage more submerging on his part? I've heard of some people using play sand, among other factors, but is there other things as well?

This is what I'd mean = 2 parts coco coir, 1 part play sand (or similar), .5 parts reptibark / sphagnum moss (I have all these readily available, except for the sand which I'd have to order)
^That is just an example
Of course I don't know the real ratio to it, if anyone could help me out with this it would be very, very appreciated.

Also side note, how can I dis-encourage him scratching at his walls? It's not that big of a deal, it just makes it harder to focus while doing remote classes and such (my desk area is like 5 feet from his enclosure).

Please let me know, it's a great help for me. I've tried looking this up but the only thing that comes up is things for Tarantulas, which I think are a bit different from Tortoises, lol.

Thanks, PiL

Hi! I dont thinkplay sand would be good because i know it can cause gut impactions but i dont know if it is different when mixed into other types of substrate. i have pretty much the exact same type of proplems though. i have coco coir and reptibark for the main mixture. i also have orchard and timothy hay in one section as well. i just mist her enclosure 3 times a day and that seems to work pretty well.
For the wall issue i also have the same thing (only in one part of her table). What i am going to do is build up the sides of her tortoise table so she cans see over. could you possibly send pictures of the enclosure? if it is glass (i used to keep her in a tank) you can spray down the sides of the walls with water so she cant see through the glass!

 

[PiL71]

Greetings. What kind of tortoise do you have? I really dont think that you will be able to find a recipe for a substrate mix that will permit burrowing. Sand is never recommended here on the TFO. What kind of “humid” hides do you have? How large of an enclosure?

Happy Torting

Ahoy there, thank you for taking the time out of your day to answer! I've got a Horsefield Tortoise. I won't use sand, noted. Thanks. I have two half log hides, plus a more naturally formed hide under a ramp in there. The enclosure is 4x2x2 (There's two boxes on top of eachother, so its 4x2x2 + 4x2x2). I know that's not exactly a recommended way of doing such a thing, but I knew from the start that Russians enjoy climbing, and after testing so did Herb. (ftr russian = horsefield). Thank you

 

[PiL71]

Hi! I dont thinkplay sand would be good because i know it can cause gut impactions but i dont know if it is different when mixed into other types of substrate. i have pretty much the exact same type of proplems though. i have coco coir and reptibark for the main mixture. i also have orchard and timothy hay in one section as well. i just mist her enclosure 3 times a day and that seems to work pretty well.
For the wall issue i also have the same thing (only in one part of her table). What i am going to do is build up the sides of her tortoise table so she cans see over. could you possibly send pictures of the enclosure? if it is glass (i used to keep her in a tank) you can spray down the sides of the walls with water so she cant see through the glass!

Noted about the play sand, I won't be using any sand then. I talked to another guy (or gal) on here a few months ago asking about an automatic misting system, as I do not want to forget to mist his enclosure.

The issue isn't at glass, it's in a corner 3/4 way up a ramp. I can attach two files of what the enclosure looks like, the overall enclosure and then a file of the problem area with the wall. The first one is the overall enclosure, the second one is where he loves to scratch during online classes. Should be noted, there's two stories to the same enclosure.

 

[mo.thetortoise]

Noted about the play sand, I won't be using any sand then. I talked to another guy (or gal) on here a few months ago asking about an automatic misting system, as I do not want to forget to mist his enclosure.

The issue isn't at glass, it's in a corner 3/4 way up a ramp. I can attach two files of what the enclosure looks like, the overall enclosure and then a file of the problem area with the wall. The first one is the overall enclosure, the second one is where he loves to scratch during online classes. Should be noted, there's two stories to the same enclosure.

My tortoise (molly) will scratch on the corner of her enclosure and I think she can see a little bit over where the wood ends so one thing I would recommend is putting more wood/something that’s not see through on the inside or, mound up some substrate in the corner over where he is scratching and maybe he will start digging instead of scratching. If you do mound up substrate make sure it’s not steep enough to where they could flip themselves! ?