What is the best substrate to use for my tortoise?
Sulcata Station’s response: We use and recommend either or both of the following substrates: 1. Grass Hay — Please note that this is grass hay (orchard grass or timothy grass), not alfalfa hay. Many sulcata keepers recommend grass hay as a substrate because the tortoises can (and usually do) eat it. Again, you may want to put down a few layers of newspaper underneath it to absorb moisture. If the hay gets too dirty, you can compost the hay and newspaper whenever you change the substrate. 2. Organic Topsoil and Bed-A-Beast® mixture — Because we live in a true desert with very low humidity (frequently less than 15 percent), we use a 50/50 mixture of organic topsoil and Bed-A-Beast® to recreate the “high-humidity microclimate” that is found in wild tortoise burrows. This mixture allows the humidity right at the surface of our tortoise table to vary from almost none underneath the heat lamps to 40-50 percent in the corners of the table. [Bed-A-Beast® is a brand name for a substrate made
