Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey fellow tort lovers,
I was thinking of putting soil in part of my tort's new indoor habitat. Can anybody tell me what kind is safe. I doubt he'll consume large quantities but he tends to put stuff in his mouth!!

Thanks,
Nikki

I dont know what type of enclosue you have but I wouldnt use soil.If you wanted to plant something you can just dig a hole in the substrate that you normally would use and water it as many times as it needed to be.A substrate I would eventually like to try is 50% bed a beast and 50% playsand but right now I am waiting.

Why would you not recommend soil? I'd like to get a section of grass growing in his enclosure.

Well if you get soil from a store which I am assuming that is what they meant most soils are treated for plant not for torts.you can go in your backyard get dirt,bake it and use that for a soil but there is a chance that they could die from treated soils.I am getting some kind of tort in the future still not sure yet but most torts are Desert torts anyway so I would just plant desert grasses in the sand/bed a beast.You dont need the whole enclosure to be pure soil to have a patch of grass.You can just have say a large tub trimmed down to like 7 inches high and put that in the enclosure and put the rest of the bedding around the tub.I just would be careful of soil bought from stores.But it was only my opinion so it doesnt matter but I am just a paranoid freak anyways.

sorry meant to say what you meant instead of they meant.

I use a mixture of play sand and topsoil. When you are buying topsoil make sure it doesn't have any perlite, vermiculite or fertilizers that could be toxic. Its usually the cheapest soil available, it goes for around $3.00 a bag here(thats canadian dollars). Though you don't really want to try to grow grass in it with your sulcata in there. Watering it will likely increase the humidity too much, plus he'll probably destroy it before it sprouts any ways, your better off growing it in a separate container.

My 2 cents
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Adam
http://anraviary.cjb.net
0.0 African Sidenecked, 0.0 Northern Diamondback Terrapin, 0.1 Redfoot, 0.1 Sulcatta, 1.0 Western Hognose, 1.0 Crested Gecko, 0.1 Mali Uromastyx

My tort's new indoor habitat is 8'8" X 6'6" and divided in half. With a little lip and a ramp it would be easy to keep soil in one half and not the other. So I was thinking with of combo of praying for a few days of indian summer (so he can get real rays!) and "rotating pastures" maybe I could get some grass growing in one half. Anyhow, he makes his own mud puddles outside and obviously loves dirt so I was thinking of bringing some in. I figure if I go for organic, non-plant treated soil it should be o.k.

thanks,
Nikki

yeh it should be ok