Safe Bowls

[Autumn]

Hi,

Regarding those rock style water bowls made from food grade resin; they look great but I found that when I wash it and then rub it with a paper towel, a brown residue comes off.

Surely no reptile should be ingesting this. Any idea if they are really safe, and don't make the water unpleasant?

What about the plastic plant saucers for plant pots. Are they safe,? The black and tan type?

Many thanks

[Reggie]

Hi,I use terracotta plant pot saucers seem safe enough.

[Nina]

Hi Autumn,

You posted your question twice -- once here and once in the Guidelines section -- and I responded in that other thread (here's a link):
https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/sit ... 884#p10884
But the post is better in this section, or actually in the General Tortoise Care section, but don't bother posting again, it's fine here.
So what I said in my response to your other post was that I absolutely agree that it doesn't sound right at all that a brown residue should come off of the resin bowls, and i think you are right to be concerned.

I happened to go into a very good reptile shop near me today and asked them what might have caused that residue, and they weren't sure as they had never seen that happen, but they wondered if over time UVB light could degrade the surface of the bowl. Was yours an old bowl?

Like Reggie, I also use plant saucers -- just the ordinary plastic orange/brown ones that have sides about an inch or two high (but the terracotta ones are just as good -- maybe better). I sink mine in the ground with only little bit protruding above the substrate and then surround it with flat pebbles to keep the tortoise from trekking substrate into the bowl (lol, it does still get in, but not quite as much).

Nina

[Autumn]

Thank you Reggie,

Thank you for responding. I use those type outdoors. They look great. After the heavy awkward resin rock type indoors, however, I am looking something light for daily indoor water dish so I am really glad to see plastic plant saucers will do well.

[Autumn]

Thank you Nina,

I have responded to your guidelines post and when you see it, I will try to delete it. Thank you for the good news that I can use the light plant saucers. I am really pleased about that.

You also gave me great advice on hibernating my two last November. Well they came out of the fridge on Valentine's day. It went really well. Neither lost much weight in the 12 weeks though; just 10g each. He went from 507g to 497g, and she went from 1089g to 1079g. They are eating, drinking, peeing, urates and pooping so I hope I'm right to think all has gone well.

Thanks again for your quick response on this fabulous site.

Sharon

[Nina]

Hi Sharon,

Glad to be of help with the saucers, and I'm so pleased that your two came through hibernation well! Mine are due to come out of the fridge in about a fortnight, so I need to bite the bullet and clean out their table and put in fresh substrate (I always hate that job because it's a big table and is upstairs, so it means traipsing up and down with buckets of substrate.

Don't worry about deleting the other thread -- I can do it really easily, but actually I don't want Reggie to think that I've deleted his post for some reason, so let's just leave it as it is. I'm going to continue, though, to try and find out why that brown residue is coming off when you wash the bowl -- it doesn't sound right to me at all. Will let you know if I find out anything.

Nina

[Autumn]

Yes, I hear you regarding the running about to sort their tables out. It takes me plenty of time to change the water and bath them. I'm always running in and out of the lounge with buckets and basins but it finally occurred to me the other day to bath them in the utility and it feels so much simpler.

"I don't want Reggie to think that I've deleted his post for some reason"

I still have the resin bowl in the garden. Ill bring one in, clean and dry it and put some water in it for a day. If residue still comes off it, I'll post a picture.

Thanks Nina,

[Nina]

A photo would be great, Sharon! I could take it into the really super reptile shop that is near me and ask what they think of it.

Cheers,
Nina