Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi i have 2 russian and a greek tortoises i am going to make a inclosure for each of them and i can't find any good recomdiations on bedding i have them on a vinyl floor for now but i want to put in there somehting that they can have that is softer i thought about those grass mats for there cages so them they awlays have something to eat too and it would be softer but i did not want to till i was sure that it would not be bad for them and if you mention sand that is a no for me i have heard horror stories

Everyone has thier own ideas on this subject. I currently have 1.1 Russains and 1.2 Greeks. You need to consider many factors when picking a substrate.
1. Does your torts need high humidity?
2. Will you be wanting them to breed and lay thier eggs in that incloser?
3. Ease of cleanup.
4. $$$ price of substrate. You will need to clean and disgard substrat often.
5. What happens if animal digest some?

Due to all of these factores I went with cypress and sand mixture. Our torts do not need or can't handle high humidity. I have found that the sand mixed with cypress allows it to remain dry if no water is added. It is cheap. So far I haven't seen them eat the cypress. If the get some in thier mouth they can spit it out with ease. The sand usaly goes to the bottom. So it isn't an issue with them eating it, yet! Finally cleanup is a snap. I just dump it all out, Bleach the cage, and refill when ever needed.

most modern reccomendations about greeks suggest a sand-soil mixture which has enough sand to stay dry but is mostly clean topsoil so that the turtles won't be eating huge amounts of loose sand and so it willll be firm enough so that they can burrow if they like.