Substrate for my terrarium

[Norman]

What is the best substrate for my terrarium? He has been getting dirt in his mouth and eyes. I have been using jungle mix.

[LarissaLurid]

ground coco fiber, cypress, peat moss, peat/sand mix (play sand washed out very well) work well. or mixing those together in different combos, but i wouldnt mix the sand with others since there shouldn't be much anyway.


Edit: I've never used the kind you have, but i've heard it's really hard for them to burrow in and has small amounts of pine as well which is really bad. O.O these other ones should work fine though or even aspen shavings, but the others seem more natural. (although aspen is easy to burrow in, but the others are great and hold moisture)

[skeetersmom]

I "have" to use shredded paper for Skeeter - he freaks out if I put wood substrate in his home. Also, if my memory serves me correctly aren't we supposed to avoid moisture in the enclosures?...

[LarissaLurid]

I "have" to use shredded paper for Skeeter - he freaks out if I put wood substrate in his home. Also, if my memory serves me correctly aren't we supposed to avoid moisture in the enclosures?...

Too much moisture is bad, but so is not enough. Especially for species like indonesians and meraukes who sometimes have shedding problems where a little more humidity helps. They are not "wet" on their own, but if you do want to increase humidity it is a better option than wetting shredded paper. (esp if it has ink which will soak into your bts if it gets wet)

[skeetersmom]

Skeeter is an IJ. Paper is not printed on. I just when I saw the "holds moisture" I was thinking of my Rainbow boa - high humidity needs substrate to hold moisture.

[Alioop]

Larissa- sand is NOT a recommended substrate for blue tongue skinks. As mods have mentioned to you before, please be cautious when you are offering advice and answering questions. If you aren't 100% sure, leave it up to someone else to answer.

Skeetersmom- there's a difference between a "wet" enclosure and a "humid" enclosure. The indo species seem to fair better on a substrate that holds a little moisture.

Norman- Cypress mulch is probably the most popular, and its what I use. Its cheap (you can just buy a big bag of cypress mulch at any gardening center!) and holds humidity really well. I find the consistency varies a bit (sometimes its mulched into finer pieces, sometimes there's bigger wood chunks), so sometimes I'll mix in aspen shavings just to "fluff" it up a bit. I don't actually give my skinks enough bedding to bury themselves in, to avoid the issue of getting substrate in their eyes/mouth/nose. I give them about an inch, and then make sure there are plenty of hides so that they can still feel safe and secure.

[Norman]

Okay great! Thanks for the advice I think I will grab some Cypress mulch today.

[Alioop]

I should also mention, about the cypress mulch- if you are using the stuff from a gardening supply store, a lot of people (I never have) will "treat it" first before using it in their skink's cage. I believe you can either freeze it (probably for at least 12 hours?) or bake it in the oven ... I think Fatal does that so maybe pm her to see what temp she recommends... don't want to start a bonfire in your oven! But, like I said, I've never treated it first... though I'm probably risking getting bugs of some sort.

[Linnea]

baking is better than freezing, since many insect eggs are resistand to cold

to bake any item that is not plastic, like branches, food dishes, substrate, you can put it on a hundred and fifty C for a few minutes. keep an eye on it to be on the safe side, but you really need it to get much warmer to make it burn ;D

[Spindown]

I've been told to kill nasties, if the thing you are putting in the oven can stand it (and if it cant it probably shouldnt be under heat anyways...) the rule of thumb is 250*F for an hour. I freeze for at least 24 and then cook anything I can just to be safe. I've "cooked" organic dirt this way, half-log hides, sticks and branches for my cages, etc. Things I cant really "cook" are things like plastic water dishes, fake plants, etc.

And to my knowledge, Linnea is right, heat is better than cold to kill parasites and other things. Most insects and esp. insect eggs wont hatch unless conditions are right meaning they can be dormant through a cold snap, aka you putting something in the freezer. Never hurts to do both if you can though.

substrate wise, yeah, sand is a BIG no for most species. It normally causes impactions, even to species most people assume should be on sand like beardies. I've seen pics from a foster in our local herp society that was a beardie, but his hemipenes were impacted with sand, and one was so bad they had to amputate it. It can also cause internal (gut and intestinal) impaction, which leads to death of the animal. There are always exceptions, where people have successfully (according to them) housed various species with sand...but its just not worth the risk IMO.

I'm to the point where I'm pretty fed up with most substrates....I'm considering trying tile with a Burrowing area of aspen or eco earth on one side (tell me if thats a bad idea), but i dont want my whole cage filled with aspen as mine seem to get it stuck in their eyelids!!! Dirt dries out too fast, same with ecoearth, and right now I've got my skinks on paper towel, just because I have to worm some of them still, and get fecals redone on the others (my vet tech friend is going to do them for me). Until everyone is worm free, its paper towels. I really want to check into the cypress mulch, but I cant seem to find it locally and I cant really have stuff shipped, too expensive.