Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had my tortoise for about a month and have a few questions:

Petco has me keeping him on a substrate of alphalpha pellets and I have to say that they do stink. Is there a better substrate than this?

Can You plant Live plants in thier enclosure and actually have them survive? I planted a dandalion plant in there and it lasted about an hour before he ate it to the dirt.

Petco said they don't eat much. This was true when I fed him grocery store greens chopped fine but lately I have just been pulling stuff from the yard (mostly dandalions) and laying them in his dish and he eats like a bottomless pit! Can you overfeed these guys? Is there harm in not chopping their greens? He seems to do just fine on his own.

I think those are my only questions for now. Here's a little picture of the guy.

Hi
One of the best substrates is a 50/50 mix of organic top soil and playsand.
Almost anything you put in your enclosure will be eaten eventually.
It is possible to over feed them. But the weeds from your yard, especially dandelion greens and flowers, are the best thing for him.
If you want to learn more about him check out the forum here http://forums.shelledwarriors.co.uk/

Dan

Yes, the pellets is a terrible substrate. Go the natural route of topsoil and playsand, I usually do a 25-75 mix (too much sand is bad for the guts if the guy ingests too much of it). Where do you live? Regardless of that, keep the guy outside as much as possible, so long as the weather is sixty five or above and sunny. Keep him away from pesticides. You can't beat the sun for vitamins and nutrients, not with any bulb on the market.

The weeds are a good base diet. You should let him on your lawn to pick and choose what he likes. This will give you some ideas as to what he likes, so you can pick it for him in the future.

T.G.