when i put woody and jessy outside in the garden, i've noticed that they both have a habit of trying to eat the concret floor, are they mistaking it for cuttlefish? which by the way they have in their table, and haven't touched. or are they triming their mouth? any suggestions!!!!

Hello

I have a theory about this. In the wild the vast majority of the rocks and stones a torotise would encunter would be limestone and therefore a good source of calcium. I think in captivity they take it as read that any light coloured "stone" is good for them.  I try to only use limestone chippings in my enclosures as a result of this.

Its unlikely hey'd be able to ingest the concrete in any great amount (bearing in mind that concrete contains a few nasties in its raw form) but it might be worth providing some more easily knawed substitutes like cuttlefish or discarded snail shells for them in their enclosure.

Theres probably a novelty factor as well, the urge to chew concrete will probably wear off quite quickly.

HTH

Dave.

Hi Dave....thankyou for your reply, i'll get some limestone asap. One other thing thats bothering me is that i was advised to  swap some of  the wood chippings in the tortoise table for top soil and playpit sand, so i've done that ,and now my torties wont go to that side of the table...are they sulking? .......thanks kath

I don't know, they just don't know what's good for them do they!

It may take a little time for them to adjust, tortoises don't like change, it throws them. You could try encouraging them by putting food in the sand/soil area but they will come round to it. Sometimes it's a bit damp at first and giving unfamiliar smells to them but it'll soon dry out indoors.