Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone, I was wondering if someone could give me some advice with my substrate for 2 juvenile sulcata's. I read on sulcatastation.com that topsoil works well, so i went to Lowes and purchased a 40lb bag . I have noticed it has some small pebbles in it, i am concerned that they little guys may eat them. I figure that in the wild they must encounter pebbles. I am also going to mix the topsoil with coconut husk, and a 5 pound bag or calci sand ( i know its not reccomended due to the possibility of impaction, but at a 5pound:40 pounds of dirt i dont think it will be a problem). I also plan on covering half of the tort table in finely chopped timothy hay. my main question is : ARE THE PEBBLES SOMETHIN TO WORRY ABOUT? Thanks!
Josh

If the tortoises are small and ingest something too big to pass through the intestines they could have problems. Also, the dust from topsoil always got to be a problem with my tortoises. I currently use cypress mulch but it still gets dusty.

I have rethought the situation and will be using bed-a-beast. Under the bed-a-beast i will use some topsoil (way out of the torts reach as a structureal element to create the second level i have planned on makin. So the top few inches will be coconut husk and timothy hay. I may get rid of the top soil all together. Thanks for the response!

I think a 50/50 topsoil and play sand is a good mixture (or 60% topsoil and 40% playsand), but it must be play sand. I wouldn't use calci sand. And you can mist the substrate every day to keep the dust down.

Nina