Redfoot turtle lays in urine

Question
My male four year old is healthy,active and eats well. We soak him every other day. he has a 4 x2 ft box for nite use or when it is too cold outside ,outdoor he has a large 12 x 3 foot enclosure. For heat in doors I use a pet heating pad in his hide. He sleeps on this all the time and urinates on it and then lays in his urine. He is there for smelly and I can't believe laying in urine is very good for him. I am building a new indoor unit and will use a combo heat sun lamp for him he does like that heating pad tho. Is cedar mulch okay as a substrate? Thx Claudia

Answer
Hi Claudia,

Well, as you know, tortoises don't seem to mind laying in their own urine (or poop, although redfoots prefer to eat it!).  However, it's best if they receive their heat from above rather than from a heating pad.  If your house doesn't get too chilly at night (below low 60s), you don't need to provide night heat, but if you need to, a ceramic heat emitter would be a better choice than the heating pad.  The hide for night can be set up as a cave, with the substrate as a floor, and that way if he urinates in it the substrate will absorb it.  My redfoots seem to enjoy snuggling into the substrate a bit at night.

Cedar (or pine/fir) mulch is definitely NOT safe to use--the oils are toxic to tortoises.  Cypress mulch is safe, but a better choice is a 50/50 mix of coir (bed-a-beast) and playsand, with some sphagnum moss (not peat moss) mixed in.  You can find the moss in the house plant area of Lowe's or Home Depot, usually labeled as "long-strand."

Hope this helped.  Please post back if you have more questions.