:-) I am so happy to hear this! I had been changing the bark once a month (per the pet store employees suggestions). I appreciate all your help. I love your videos and hope you don't mind that I ask you questions. Mortoise the Tortoise thanks you! He loves his new substrate so much!

Sorry for the typos, I'm on my phone...

In my outside cage I use sand and earth. Half of the cage is earth, and half of the cage is filled with sand. my inside cage is all sand, but after watching this video I'll change the inside substrate to coconut mixed with playsand. thanks a lot for the imformative video.

Yes, it's very simple. You've got it pegged with the substrate brick. When you first add it to your enclosure, it'll be quite damp (just fine!). Keeping it moist is a good thing, in fact (although not so much as when initially added). I'd do 60/40 coconut fiber/sand, then add somewhere around 2" for that size enclosure, with a deeper spot or two for burrowing.

He should make one his tortoises must love the enclosure!!!

Hey! I'm a 12 year old boy and i have a russian tortoise named Nikolia. I was gonna ask two questions. 1) How do i know that the play sand is cleaned and filtered? Will it say? Or should i ask? 2) How much play sand is enough? If you could answer these it would be awesome. And maybe you remember me? In like 2010 or something i did an encloser review and i said that you were like my favorite youtuber for tortises. The channel name was reptilemanRT. Thanks again.

@nickkourpias You're welcome! Thanks for your kind words. I just posted a poll annotation at the end of this video, and I'd appreciate your input. =)

Happy to inspire.

That depends on the quality and composition of the potting soil. Regardless, mixing them would not be a good idea: Timothy hay is an appealing tortoise snack, and potting soil is a no-no for consumption. If your favorite candy was floating in a bowl of Windex, you (with the power of resistance of a tortoise) would enjoy the candy and inadvertently take in a bit o' poison.

Thanks for this video! I changed my substrate to your suggestion of the mix. My Russian will burrow so deep, I have panicked that he's not there and would pull him out... Is this ok for him to be so deep? I probably have 4-5 inches of substrate. Also, how often to you change yours? I have a cement mixer enclosure with a second story. Thanks so much for your videos!! :-)

@kcpoynter Coconut fiber tends to get dusty by itself, unless you're constantly wetting it down. Then, you'll probably end up with an enclosure that's a bit too humid.

Hey there! You may be on your phone, but you have MANY less typos than most of the messages I get. Thanks for that. Tortoises love to burrow, and in a small enclosure, there's no deep that's too deep. I change mine maybe twice a year, more if they're messy.

@laughalot1029 If you mean "everyday basis," than yes, they can. I leave it in my enclosure and they eat it at their discretion.

@hanzoo123 I'll work on this request in order to answer your questions. Look out for the video.

like

Would the coconut fiber by itself be a good substrate?

please do a vid on how u constructed ur enclosure!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how many bricks do you need for a habitat that is 5 feet by 2 1/2 feet????

It wouldn't be a terrible choice, but I see no reason not to mix it.

can they eat timothy hay everyday bases?

@trashcan1231 Wouldn't recommend it. Both are potentially edible (in some rare cases). However, if both are mixed together, chances are one of the two could be desirable to your torts. Risky combo.

So the Calcium sand will be just as good of a mix as the play sand?

His tortoise is mostly likely still alive

what lighting does a russian tortoise needs

Why would you not recommend bark !!!??? Cus I just bought it today science the shop didn't have the tortoise sand

Please see my lighting video (also in this playlist).

How often do u change your substrate

Can't you just use dirt? If they like to dig so much dirt compacts and they can burrow easily.