Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Destiny did it in a BIG way inside her home. That was a fun job cleaning..
NOT
lol
I got the mess out of there but I had to wait for her to get out of my way before I could really scrub the place down.
She did something that put me in awe of her again though.
After I scrubbed it down with soap & water then disinfected it she was out grazing, I walked over & petted her, she did the arm flip thing which means please get the hose & run water over me.

I did that & then got an old toothbrush to clean the remnants of poop off the back end of her shell.
What was awesome is that I put the hose on the ground sort of under her because I'm sure she had some stuck on her plastron. When I put the hose under her, she lifted up so that I could wash her off.
I thought holy cow how smart is that??
They do things that really make me wonder just what exactly is going on in that brain of theirs.
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PHRatz

and oh my gosh I wish it would stop!! LOL

She's done it again & it's worse right now because the lawn is loaded with freshly sprouted greens, the grass is greening up.. so all the food is moist. That means it's a little too moist when it comes out the other end so I have a giant sized mess to clean right now.
I'm waiting for her to exit so that I can get to work on it.
OY
The joys of giant organic lawn mowers.

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PHRatz

Judging from the size of what my little guy does. I am sure you have a huge pile there. Hey makes great compost!

Hey, PH
I built my torts a 4X4X4 house with a slanted roof and placed it into the rear corner of their outside enclosure for cool nights, It has a red heat lamp inside about 2&1/2 - 3 feet from the plywood floor. Should I remove the plywood bottom and let them have an earth floor, or should I place some sort of substrate inside the house for them? Tonight is their first night out side for the summer and they are all inside the house, so they at least know where to go! that makes me happy, I just want to make sure I give them the best resting place I can for cold nights. Thanks for your help! S.D.

P.S. I will post the Pics soon.

I think as they get bigger and they urinate and poop bigger, it's not going to be easy to clean a wooden floor. Urine will soak into the wood & eventually you'll never be able to get that odor out of it.

I've read several suggestions lately that sounded good to me for covering the floor, one was flooring like you'd use in your house, either linoleum or ceramic tiles.
Another suggestion happened recently I think on the general tortoise board but I haven't had a chance to go over to Lowe's to look for them. Shoot now I can't remember exactly what it was... something that's in squares kind of like puzzle pieces but is easy to remove and clean because it was like rubber mats or something. I'll have to go reread that before I get to the store.

Our tortoise house has concrete flooring, I like that because it's easy to clean but it does have to be bleached from time to time or the odor doesn't come out. I don't think even bleach would take all that out of wood because it's too porous.

The concrete is great in the hottest days of summer, our tortoise loves to lie on the cool floor but in winter it's too cold so I use paper & old towels to cover it.
I'd like to go with something other than that because the paper & the towels get bunched up. I want to find something else myself that will cover the floor in winter.
When DH first built that house for her we tried hay as a substrate, that was awful because she wouldn't eat it & it stunk. We never tried that again.
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PHRatz

I forgot to say something about this. I think if you removed the plywood & left just an earth floor, then they'll dig huge holes in it. I don't know if you'd want them burrowed underground like that. I wouldn't want mine doing that.
We don't want her to ever get the idea that it's ok to dig large holes in the ground because even with a buried foudation under the fence if she dug as much as a sulcata can, she could still dig under the fence.
We have wooden dog houses around the yard for her to use in summer when she spends long hours out of her home. They give her a place to rest other than her regular home & so far it's worked, she hasn't ever dug a large hole in the ground.
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PHRatz

>>Judging from the size of what my little guy does. I am sure you have a huge pile there. Hey makes great compost!

This is something I didn't expect back when we first got her but when she does this on her "pig blanket" then flattens it out when she sits on it, it dries up pretty fast so then it's like cow chips.
LOL
Who'd ever think that tortoises can make cow chips?
If we were more redneck than we already are we could have a tortoise chip throwing contest in our back lot.
Hey games for the neighborhood kids lol!

When we first got her we had a different vet who used to be an equine vet. He couldn't believe the size of what he called road apples that she gave to him, on his nice clean floor. lol
But like I said, poop happens.
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PHRatz

If you organize the competition I will come toss tort patties! HA HA HA, Ours look more like footballs though!