Tortoises pee and my in-door enclosure smell, what to do?

[Suranai]

Obviously I can't toilet-train my tortoises or stop them from peeing.

I move them in and out from in-door and out-door enclosures depending on the weather. The problem is when the tortoises are inside and the substrates start to smell. I divided my enclosure into 4 areas: repti-bark+hay, organic soil+sand, pea pebbles, and ceramic tiles for feeding and basking. All of the areas except ceramic tiles are smell. When the tortoises are outdoor, I refresh the indoor substrates by taking them out and drying in the sun, which helps to remove 100% of the odor (and yes, it's lot of work). Unfortunately, I dont think I can keep doing this daily, especially during winter when I need to keep my babies indoor 24/7.

Anyone have the same problem? More importantly, does anyone have a suggestion of how to keep my in-door enclosure smelling like tortoise's pee?

BTW, I only have 2 tortoises (5 inches) and the in-door in-closure is about 10 square feet. Also, the depth of all substrates are about 3-4 inches w/ an exception to the ceramic which sits directly on pea pebbles.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hm-m-m. . . I have never smelt pee in my indoor enclosures. Poop, yes, but pee no. Maybe your substrate should be deeper, and maybe your tortoises should be better hydrated. Do you soak them daily? they usually pee in the soak, and that would help eliminate the pee smell in the substrate.

 

[Suranai]

Hm-m-m. . . I have never smelt pee in my indoor enclosures. Poop, yes, but pee no. Maybe your substrate should be deeper, and maybe your tortoises should be better hydrated. Do you soak them daily? they usually pee in the soak, and that would help eliminate the pee smell in the substrate.

I soak my tortoises every other day for 30 min. Should I soak them daily instead?

They neither pee or poop during soak. They usually do that after their meal (around 9-10am), both pee and poop, which I remove and clean them out right the way. I make sure they have fresh water at all time.

I almost always smell pee when I woke up and check their enclosure in the morning (around 7am). I think they pee before getting soak.

 

[Tom]

What species?

The repti-bark is good, but no hay. The pea gravel, hay, sand and soil, all need to go. None of that is safe or good for tortoises. The tiles are fine if you like them, but not necessary. Yeti-Bark should not stink.

All of my tortoises poop and pee in their soaks. Yours might need to be trained to do this. It tremendously reduces the waste load in indoor enclosures. Soak them every day in large, tall sided, opaque tubs. Keep the water warm and leave them in their for an hour or more. Do this around, or a little before, the time you say they usually go potty in the enclosure. Over time, they will start associating the soaks with potty time and will go much sooner. Mine usually unload within the first minute or two of a soak now. During longer soaks, your tortoise will "get on the tortoise treadmill". They all start trying to climb the sides to get out eventually, if not right away. This is okay. Its good exercise and the locomotion helps get the contents of the GI tract moving.

Finally, tortoises should never be kept in pairs. They are solitary animals and a pair situation is much too personal and stressful. Groups can sometimes work, but not pairs.

 

[Suranai]

What species?
The repti-bark is good, but no hay. The pea gravel, hay, sand and soil, all need to go. None of that is safe or good for tortoises. The tiles are fine if you like them, but not necessary. Yeti-Bark should not stink.

All of my tortoises poop and pee in their soaks. Yours might need to be trained to do this. It tremendously reduces the waste load in indoor enclosures. Soak them every day in large, tall sided, opaque tubs. Keep the water warm and leave them in their for an hour or more. Do this around, or a little before, the time you say they usually go potty in the enclosure. Over time, they will start associating the soaks with potty time and will go much sooner. Mine usually unload within the first minute or two of a soak now. During longer soaks, your tortoise will "get on the tortoise treadmill". They all start trying to climb the sides to get out eventually, if not right away. This is okay. Its good exercise and the locomotion helps get the contents of the GI tract moving.

Finally, tortoises should never be kept in pairs. They are solitary animals and a pair situation is much too personal and stressful. Groups can sometimes work, but not pairs.

Thank you Tom for the advice. I'll try to soak them daily and will leave them even longer now. They water used for soaking is around 28c-30c, too hot? too cold? And yes I have tall and opaque buckets.

As for the hay, is there a good reason not to? I left them in the enclosure because they came with tortoises and the tortoises seem to like the hay. I often found them sleep under neat. Every now and then they do munch on them, too. So I got more and they seems to love it. .. Also, why not soil and gravel? I have seems people doing that all over.

BTW, I have Aldabras. I heard they're social. That's why I got them in pair. Getting more of those to make a group would certainly devastate my saving account. Would fake tortoises alleviate the stress?

 

[Tom]

Thank you Tom for the advice. I'll try to soak them daily and will leave them even longer now. They water used for soaking is around 28c-30c, too hot? too cold? And yes I have tall and opaque buckets.

As for the hay, is there a good reason not to? I left them in the enclosure because they came with tortoises and the tortoises seem to like the hay. I often found them sleep under neat. Every now and then they do munch on them, too. So I got more and they seems to love it. .. Also, why not soil and gravel? I have seems people doing that all over.

BTW, I have Aldabras. I heard they're social. That's why I got them in pair. Getting more of those to make a group would certainly devastate my saving account. Would fake tortoises alleviate the stress?

I prefer the soaking water to be 32-35C. You can watch the behavior of your tortoises to see what they like.

If you are keeping your substrate damp, as you should be, the hay will mold. The mold can be toxic. This is the reason to not use it. Its also messy. Grass hay is fine as food for larger tortoises outside their sleeping quarters, but not as substrate for them to live on.

Soil is made from composted yard waste. No way to know what is in it and it could be something toxic. It also turns to mud and stains them. Not so visible on a black tortoise, but it is on other species.

Gravel and sand are both terrible impaction risks. Intentional or accidental ingestion can lead to impaction and death, and it often does. People should not be doing that anywhere. They do, and tortoise often die from it. The tortoise vets I work with see it regularly.

Many species are social in the wild. This has no bearing on pairs in captivity. Groups can work sometimes. Pairs in a relatively small enclosure are not the same as groups. Group behavioral dynamics are totally different than pair dynamics. Living as a pair is very stressful on both of them. They don't want to live that way. Fake tortoise would not solve this problem. Separate enclosures would.

 

[Suranai]

I prefer the soaking water to be 32-35C. You can watch the behavior of your tortoises to see what they like.

If you are keeping your substrate damp, as you should be, the hay will mold. The mold can be toxic. This is the reason to not use it. Its also messy. Grass hay is fine as food for larger tortoises outside their sleeping quarters, but not as substrate for them to live on.

Soil is made from composted yard waste. No way to know what is in it and it could be something toxic. It also turns to mud and stains them. Not so visible on a black tortoise, but it is on other species.

Gravel and sand are both terrible impaction risks. Intentional or accidental ingestion can lead to impaction and death, and it often does. People should not be doing that anywhere. They do, and tortoise often die from it. The tortoise vets I work with see it regularly.

Many species are social in the wild. This has no bearing on pairs in captivity. Groups can work sometimes. Pairs in a relatively small enclosure are not the same as groups. Group behavioral dynamics are totally different than pair dynamics. Living as a pair is very stressful on both of them. They don't want to live that way. Fake tortoise would not solve this problem. Separate enclosures would.

Wow, I guess I will need to start saving for the third tortoise. ?

I have seen so many people filled up their enclosure with soils. so I thought I would follow them. If I need to keep the substrate damp, wouldn't reptibark start to mold as well? right now I have the soil-sand-mixture and reptibark areas dry but keep the gravel area damp because I know mold won't grow on gravel. both tortoises like to bask on the gravel. I think it's because the the near by heat lamp heat up the moisture in the gravel then rise to the air. because of that my air humidity is usually above 80%. I also installed a fan to circulate the air which also prevents molding on the soil surface. if I were to have only reptile bark and need to keep damp, how would I make sure I wouldn't get molds underneath?

Alternatively, I could just replace everything with rubber mats like the one in the image below. easy to keep clean and no mold. would you recommend that?

 

[Tom]

Mold can and will grow on damp gravel. That is actually a good way to propagate mold. Soil and sand will also grow mold, and the hay you are using is the biggest mold grower of them all.

The only substrate you were using that doesn't cause mold, ironically, is the one you think will cause mold. Orchid bark has physical properties that inhibit the growth of mold, fungus and bacteria. So does coco coir and cypress mulch. That is why we recommend those three as substrates. I don't make these claims lightly. I've been housing reptiles on damp orchid bark since the early 90s. I have literally raised over 1000 baby tortoises on orchid bark. I've currently got dozens of babies on orchid bark right now, and dozens more due to hatch in the coming months.

Those rubber mats are not a good way to house tortoises in my opinion.

See some of my enclosure with orchid bark here. No mold:

New Stack of Animal Plastics CLosed Chambers

AKA: Tom's baby emporium. @GStars asked for a pic on my new baby raising enclosures the other day. I only had a partial, but I took a fuller one today. Each cage is 96x30 and divided in the middle into two 48x30 cages for starting babies. The colored tape on each upper right corner shows the...

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