Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a CA wood turtle my question is she is good size and I'm having trouble keeping her encloser smelling good. I bed with bed a beast and other pet store beddings.I have realized that even though she does almost always go in her water she does at times do it in her bedding and she is well, a stinky turtle. So is there a cheaper safe bedding I could use because at thirty dollars for bedding this is really going to be costly to have to dump it regularly.Also I have read to feed them every other day I just don't have the heart to not feed her everyday because she is waiting every morning with her front feet in her dish I have honestly never saw a turtle with such a appatite.Thank you .

i keep my ca woods on a peat moss/spaghnum moss mix. i keep it damp ( not soaked). they love to completely burrow into it. i have a heat lamp on one side of the tank that keeps some of it drier then the rest plus has a big flat rock for basking. mosses i get from a home and garden store

I went ot the store to get peat moss but Lowes just had it with Miracle grow in it. Where do you buy yours? thanks

steins

She should not be a stinky turtle, i breed these, mine are never stinky unless the water isn't cleaned. My water is filtered, is yours?

I use a bottom layer of the coconut compress (bed a beast) covered with a thick layer of cypress.

No it is not filtered. I have been using a catlitter box for her soaking dish.I'm going to have to rethink her set up because the water doesn't cover her whole shell and it is making the top of her shell dry looking.she goes poop all the time and hers is the size of a small cat and it is very smelly. I had to take the fake plants out that is nasty to get the poop cleened off of those.Maybe I'm giving her to much fruit.i dump the water at least twice a day but if she is not eating she is soaking.And eat this girl can eat, she eats a cereal bowl full of greens fruit and worms every day and if I even walk in the room she about breaks her neck to get out of her tub to see if there may be some more food coming. I finally got her tank figured out the aquariums looked to narrow so i bought plexi glass to make her house 4 foot long and 4 ft wide. Because I have to get some humity going.Is cypress a form of mulch? Thanks for all the help. Lisa ps Buslady I named her Strawberry because she adores them.