Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a sulcatta that I've raised since he was a hatchling. He is about two years old now and he lives inside in a large plastic swiming pool. He has a nice house in there and gets fed well. Now that he's getting kinda big I'm trying to find a good substrate that will make it easier to control big tortioise waste and smell. I have used a special sand made from crushed coral that worked well but is very expensive to cover a large area. He is on alfalfa pellets right now. They are very cheap but the whole house smells like a barn. I was thinking that cat litter may be excellent. Something like the texture of course sand that he is used to, easy to clean and help control odor. Problem is I don't know if there is anything in cat litter that could be harmful. Anybody ever heard anything about this or have an educated opinion? thanks, Ed

Having Raised Manx Cats and Tortoises for years I can tell you I would not use any cat litter for a tort. I use Pine Pellets(only) for my CATS because this is by far the safest for cats. NEVER use any clay litter or some clumping litters for even cats! beacause even though cats do not usually eat it( kittens do sometimes) so thats why I use the Pine pellets BUT a tort tends to taste just about everything especially a young one. I would not use anything like that including many of the sands/ calcium sands/ walnut sands ect that they say are safe for torts/reptiles they all = bad. My older torts are on Cypress Mulch when indoors and my babies are all on paper towels/ newspaper until they are 2 years or so old. I also have Bearded Dragons that are on Play sand and I have never had a problem. Maybe a tort would do fine on play sand as long as they do not eat in the enclosure. Thats my two cents from my experiences and I hope I have helped but I am sure there will be more people to answer you that will also have experience on this. Good Luck!!! Deb

-----
Kai- German Giant Male
Skyla- German Giant Het for Pastel Female
Voodoo- Yellow Red Desert Male
Banshee- Orange Sandfire Female
Puff- Citrus x Red/Orange Sandfire baby poss male
Snowy- Snow x Leusitic baby( coming soon!) female
10 Sundial Coral x Orange Sandfire Red/Gold babies
10 Orange Sandfire x Snow babies
Velvet- Blond Leopard yearling poss female
Marley- Sulcata Baby poss male
Zaharra- Cherry Head baby poss female
Isis- Red Foot poss female
One Eyed Jack- Cherry Head Male
Sammy- Red Foot Female
Sinny- Red Foot Female
Paris- Red Foot probable male
Eisha- Russian Female
Mischa- Russian Female
Maddox- Russian Male
Zeus- Greek Male
Jade- Eastern Box Male Juvy
Sundra- Eastern Box Female Juvy
Shakira- Eastern Box Female
Spike- Eastern Box Male
Runner- Basilisk Female
Kamile- Veiled Chameleon Male
7.22 Ball Pythons
1.2 Desert Horned Lizards
7.14 Manx Cats- too many to name here
1.2 German Shepherds- Danzig, Onyx and Okai
1.1 Hedgehogs Wicca and Willow
0.1 Rex Rabbit- Callie
0.1 Eastern Gray Squrriel- Paws
1.2 Ferrets- Spaz, Chyna Rose, Jumanji

Sorry I forgot to answer your question about anything harmful in cat litter. There are chemicals in some cat litters that I personal do not know if they are harmful to torts but I can't see how they would be something I would want around my torts. So again I do not think using cat litter is safe at all. Deb

-----
Kai- German Giant Male
Skyla- German Giant Het for Pastel Female
Voodoo- Yellow Red Desert Male
Banshee- Orange Sandfire Female
Puff- Citrus x Red/Orange Sandfire baby poss male
Snowy- Snow x Leusitic baby( coming soon!) female
10 Sundial Coral x Orange Sandfire Red/Gold babies
10 Orange Sandfire x Snow babies
Velvet- Blond Leopard yearling poss female
Marley- Sulcata Baby poss male
Zaharra- Cherry Head baby poss female
Isis- Red Foot poss female
One Eyed Jack- Cherry Head Male
Sammy- Red Foot Female
Sinny- Red Foot Female
Paris- Red Foot probable male
Eisha- Russian Female
Mischa- Russian Female
Maddox- Russian Male
Zeus- Greek Male
Jade- Eastern Box Male Juvy
Sundra- Eastern Box Female Juvy
Shakira- Eastern Box Female
Spike- Eastern Box Male
Runner- Basilisk Female
Kamile- Veiled Chameleon Male
7.22 Ball Pythons
1.2 Desert Horned Lizards
7.14 Manx Cats- too many to name here
1.2 German Shepherds- Danzig, Onyx and Okai
1.1 Hedgehogs Wicca and Willow
0.1 Rex Rabbit- Callie
0.1 Eastern Gray Squrriel- Paws
1.2 Ferrets- Spaz, Chyna Rose, Jumanji

I also forgot to say that the mulch is used only for my tropical species and for my others I used a sand soil mix. except the babies which are just on Newspaper or paper towels unless outside grazing. Deb

-----
Kai- German Giant Male
Skyla- German Giant Het for Pastel Female
Voodoo- Yellow Red Desert Male
Banshee- Orange Sandfire Female
Puff- Citrus x Red/Orange Sandfire baby poss male
Snowy- Snow x Leusitic baby( coming soon!) female
10 Sundial Coral x Orange Sandfire Red/Gold babies
10 Orange Sandfire x Snow babies
Velvet- Blond Leopard yearling poss female
Marley- Sulcata Baby poss male
Zaharra- Cherry Head baby poss female
Isis- Red Foot poss female
One Eyed Jack- Cherry Head Male
Sammy- Red Foot Female
Sinny- Red Foot Female
Paris- Red Foot probable male
Eisha- Russian Female
Mischa- Russian Female
Maddox- Russian Male
Zeus- Greek Male
Jade- Eastern Box Male Juvy
Sundra- Eastern Box Female Juvy
Shakira- Eastern Box Female
Spike- Eastern Box Male
Runner- Basilisk Female
Kamile- Veiled Chameleon Male
7.22 Ball Pythons
1.2 Desert Horned Lizards
7.14 Manx Cats- too many to name here
1.2 German Shepherds- Danzig, Onyx and Okai
1.1 Hedgehogs Wicca and Willow
0.1 Rex Rabbit- Callie
0.1 Eastern Gray Squrriel- Paws
1.2 Ferrets- Spaz, Chyna Rose, Jumanji

Hi, Ed,

In your search for a proper substrate, I would recommend that you check out the following article:

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/substrates.html

HTH,

T

The article you directed me to was informative, but I have no idea what "loam" is. I'm guessing it's some type of soil, but I've never heard of that. figures cat litter would be bad, if it seems too good to be true, probably is.
thanks for everybody's help, Ed

Hi, Ed,

Yes, I was confused by the term "loam" too. Tortoisetrust.org is a site maintained by British authors, for the most part, and after researching a bit, I believe that loam is pretty much the British way of saying soil. So any type of organic, chemical- and additive-free topsoil should do the trick.

Best,

T