Time for a change...in substrate :)

[Jhwells46]

Tippy has made it quite clear that she is a once a month on the dot table change kinda girl. Going to go to the store today and re up on supplies, and was thinking about switching up my substrate from coco coir and sphagnum moss to this great organic mushroom compost that they have at Lowes and sphagnum moss only. I garden with it and my plants couldn't look any better, and it retains moisture longer. Been struggling with the humidity dropping at night since I'm not awake to spray it down. The coco coir just gets so dry and stringy and matted so quickly, and Tippy obviously hates it getting stuck to her. How do you guys feel
about that?

 

[Yvonne G]

I had never heard of it before, so I Googled it. There were plenty of favorable results, however, I read this one unfavorable one:

http://www.douggreensgarden.com/mushroom-compost.html

It was the paragraph on chemical residues that turned me off the product.

 

[Jhwells46]

He's a stickler for some organic certification, which I am too when it comes to Tippy. If it isn't certified, I don't buy it for use with her no matter what it is. I have a local organic market a block from my house and I think they carry some that is locally produced by the same people that they buy their mushrooms from. I'll look into it though. His article does make a lot of sense though. Is there another good soil product that you would recommend in leu of the mushroom compost @yvonne ?

 

[Yvonne G]

I only use potting soil for my baby box turtle enclosure. And because I do a lot of plant potting, I buy the cheapest potting soil I can find. The one I'm using now is from Orchard Supply Hardware. It's just dirt with no additives. Great stuff for baby box turtles.

 

[lisa127]

why am I never able to find potting soil without perlite added? That's why I don't use it.

 

[Yvonne G]

You have to look for the cheapest stuff you can find. Usually this will be the generic brand or store brand, not name brands.

 

[Jhwells46]

Ok and that would be fine for a leopard tortoise yearling?

 

[Yvonne G]

If you want to use soil, then yes, it would be fine. I would top dress it with something else, though, to keep the food and water clean longer.

 

[Jhwells46]

I was thinking about doing soil, sphagnum moss, planted grasses, rock gardens, and a lot of planted edibles for her. I use terra cotta dishes for her food and water which are both surrounded with sphagnum moss and rocks to act as a kind of door mat so she won't track substrate into her food or water. I'll post pictures of the final product if you don't mind, I'd love to see some of your leopard enclosures too! I'll do some perusing of the enclosure section as well.

 

[Yvonne G]

My turtles and tortoises all live outside. I have a tort table in the outdoor leopard shed that has a young SA leopard in it, and a tort table in the outdoor Manouria shed that has a young Manouria in it and last but not least, I have a tort table in the outdoor YF shed that has a couple of young YF tortoises in it.

Here's a link to where I posted about my SA leopard tort table:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatchling-tort-table.81250/

I now have a couple of potted plants in there to help with shading a bit.

 

[Jhwells46]

Nice! I asked Tom about when the best time would be to put her in an outdoor enclosure full time during the spring and summer and be advised me to wait until next year due to how little she still is. She's almost a year and two months and is 3.5 inches I take her outside for about an hour every day that it's warm and sunny. The neighbors get a real kick out of me "just walkin my tortoise!" Here's the updated table. I did end up going with the organic mushroom compost after a very long conversation with the hippie hydroponic gardening store about the process the guy they buy if from uses. It's as close to straight up dirt as you can buy and as organic as it gets lol. Tippy is ssssooooo happy!