substrate question

[bborysow]

Hi Everyone,
I would like to try changing the substrate for my Leopard Tortoise, and my Red Foot Tortoise. They both live on newspaper now. They are large animals, who eat and poop a heck of a lot. Any recomendations on substrate? I've kept them on newspaper for the last 10 years.
If you have some different experience, please share. Thanks.

[gfisher2002]

My redfoot lives on a mixture of Cypress multch, washed coconut husk shavings and sand. It retains the much loved moisture they enjoy awsome and looks good too. I've never had problems with my redfoot eating the substrate although some torts do so watch closely. There's lots of other option but this has worked best for me and my redfoot. Poop scoops easy and she loves digging and rumping aro8und in it better than plain paper. I'm all about a habitat that it as real as possible for the animal. So this allows planting and a natural look and texture to the ground.

[Linds]

I don't like to see any turtles/tortoises kept on newspaper except in temporary situations. Not sure what the best substrate for Leopards is so I won't comment on that. I get nervous keeping my redfoot on anything that cannot be ingested, so I have been using peat chunks but it has been brought to my attention it harvest a harmful mold so the next bag I buy will be ground coconut husk. My redfoot eats most of his poop so I don't have to worry about that :rolleyes: