Zoo Med’s Eco Earth is a coconut fiber bedding suitable for many kinds of land-dwelling reptiles, including your box turtle. It holds moisture and helps maintain humidity levels in your turtle’s habitat. It’s easy for your pet to burrow into and gives female turtles a suitable medium for laying eggs. It also absorbs waste and odor and is pretty easy to spot-clean. For the most part, you should only have to do a complete change of the bedding a few times a year.

Keep reading for more about Zoo Med’s Eco Earth:

Jump to the Section You’re Most Interested In
.                 Sizes & Types               Ease of Use                   Safety
.                               Pros & Cons               Check Prices

Sizes and types of Eco Earth Bedding

Zoo Med Eco Earth comes in two different forms, compressed bricks or loose fill, so you can decide which works best for you. As the name suggests, the bricks are tightly compressed to fit a lot of bedding into a small size. You need to soak it and let it expand before using it.
You can buy single bricks or packages of three bricks.
The loose fill is ready to use as is. You can get two different sized bags, depending on the size of your habitat:

• 8 quarts (8.8 liters)
• 24 quarts (23 liters)

The loose fill does tend to be more expensive than the bricks. Like most things, buying in bulk is cheaper in the long run. So if you prefer the loose fill and have the space to store it, getting the larger bag and storing whatever you don’t use right away can be more economical.

(Back to Top)

Ease of Use/How to Use

Zoo Med’s Eco Earth bedding is very lightweight, consisting of small, soft pieces of coconut fiber. It can get a bit dusty when dry, but since box turtles need high humidity, you should be keeping it damp by misting regularly (daily if needed). It’s best to keep it damp, not soaking wet. You may want to use a humidity gauge to make sure you’ve got the right humidity.

A few reviewers complained that it molded, but most agree that it is much less likely to mold than many other substrates. Keeping it too wet is more likely to cause molding.

It’s generally pretty easy to remove any soiled bedding without having to change the whole thing. You’ll still need to change it all out once in a while, at least a couple times a year. Or if it still smells after you’ve spot-cleaned it.

It’s also mostly odorless. At most it might smell a little “earthy.”

It does stick to wet hands, animals and food, so you’ll need to be careful when handling it. And your turtle will probably be covered with it after bathing. It should eventually dry and fall off (mostly).

The amount of Eco Earth you need depends on the size of your habitat. In general, you should fill it to at least 1-1/2 times the height of your turtle. This gives him plenty of material to bury himself in. One brick of compressed material makes around 7 liters of substrate.

Zoo Med does recommend mixing Eco Earth with Forest Floor and/or ReptiSand for an ideal substrate. But there shouldn’t be any reason you can’t use just the Eco Earth if you prefer.

If you’re growing plants in your box turtle’s habitat, many can grow in just the Eco Earth.

Bricks

The bricks take up less space to store, but require a little more work to use. You need to soak the bricks for at least 20 minutes so they will expand. Some people find they need to soak them much longer. One trick is to break up the bricks into smaller pieces before soaking, which works much faster. You can break them up with a hammer or cut them into smaller pieces. Either way, it can get a little messy, so do it outside, in the basement or on a covered surface!

Loose Fill

This is ready to use as is, but costs more and takes up more space to store.

(Back to Top)

Is Coconut Fiber Safe for Box Turtles?

It’s important to be sure anything you put in your box turtle’s habitat is safe for her. Not all pet products are necessarily safe for all animals. And just because it’s a reptile substrate does not mean it’s suitable specifically for box turtles.

You want to avoid substrates that may scratch your turtle or certain woods with oils that can cause respiratory problems. You also want something that won’t block their guts if they eat a little.
Eco Earth is safe on all counts. It’s very soft, just like dirt. It’s not abrasive (harsh, rough, able to cause scratches) and it has no toxic oils.

And it’s somewhat digestible. Of course, your box turtle shouldn’t be chomping on huge amounts of the stuff, but eating a little that may get stuck to her food or beak shouldn’t hurt her.

(Back to Top)

Eco Earth Pros & Cons Summary

Pros:

• Easy to clean.
• Only need a complete habitat change a few times a year.
• Safe if your turtle eats some. Small amounts shouldn’t cause gut impaction.
• Bricks are easy to store.
• Holds moisture well to help maintain humidity.

Cons:

• Bricks need soaking before use. This can get messy.
• Loose fill is expensive.
• Sticks to wet animals, food, dishes, hands, etc.
• Dusty when dry (although for box turtles, you shouldn’t let it dry out).

In general, most reviewers liked this product very much. They considered the cons minor compared to the overall ease of use and safety. And their pets, including turtles, love it, too!

(Back to Top)

Check Price and Availability

The below links are to compressed bricks. If you’d prefer a different sized package or a bag of the loose fill (or want to check prices on those products), just search the site for “Zoo Med Eco Earth” (without the quotes) and click on the one you’re looking for.

As of this writing:

• PetSmart sells the brick 3-packs and 8-quart bags of loose fill.
• Buy.com (Rakuten shopping) sells 8-quart and 24-quart bags of loose fill.
• Or check out all of Amazon’s Eco Earth choices.

 

(Back to Top)