Substrate Suggestions?

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melonhelmet
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Substrate Suggestions?

Postby melonhelmet » Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:27 pm

I recently bought a custom tank for my Meruake Bluey, but the store no longer carries the Substrate I used (Large chunk coco husk)! I really need to switch his enclosures over, but am having a heck of a time trying to find something to use. :oops:

Heres some of the things I cannot get:

Aspen: I'm incredibly allergic

Cypress Mulch: Small town, our hardware store refuses to carry it.

Large Chunk Coco Husk: Store doesn't carry it until summer time, and the petstore ones are way to small to full a six inch deep 4x2 area.

Carefresh: Dries the cage way to much for an Indo species (in my opinion).

I was wondering if something like a Sand/soil mix like monitor keepers use would work? Any other suggestions?

Thanks a lot.
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Postby Linnea » Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:37 pm

im not one of the most experienced BTS owner on this forum, and i have a different type of substrates to pick from, but ill do my best to answer.

you can temporarily use soft paper with a lot of hides while deciding on the next substrate.

sand/soil can carry a lot of extra bugs and such, like anything else i guess, but depending on where you get it from it can be quite a lot more.

any substrate is harmful if ingested, but sand and soil tends to clog quite a bit, or so i heard(this part might be a myth). However, if you use wood or something like it, the pieces are often a bit bigger, so if the accidentaly get it in the mouth they can spit it out, this is not the case with sand.

im very allergic to dust from my own BTS's substrate, but its only while changing i experience this problem, and you dont need to change very often as long as you spot clean. all substrate will have some amounts of dust and smaller particles, sand is not an exception, its often worse.

if your allergy is the same as mine, meaning only to the small wood particles and the dust, then it takes 24 hours for the dust to go down after changing the entire substrate, 12 hours or less if you hoover your room and take a shower or change clothes.

myself i use a wood chips like substrate, i can recommend it wholeheartedly! its very cheap, and all pieces are the same size ( 0.8 x 0.3 cm), and the skink will probably not get cut on it, get it in the eye or eat it by mistake. the pieces are also about 0.2 mm thick, so not thin and sharp.

carefresh, you could spray it with water twice a day?
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Postby melonhelmet » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:02 pm

See that's where it's hard for me. I like to keep my humidity a little bit higher, as I'm not working with AUS species like Northerns. I'm working with meruake, and after studying the weather in Meruake for about a month, the relative humidity never goes below 40%. When I've tried Aspen, or wood humidiy was so hard to keep where I like it, and where my Skink seems to be at his best. (Also my allergies to wood is contact with certain ones).

I do tend to feed outside of the enclosure also, not sure how much of a difference for injestion that makes.
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Postby Katrina » Sat Sep 17, 2011 5:15 pm

Does your hardware store carry any other types of mulches?

You could get cypress mulch shipped: http://www.petmountain.com/product/rept ... mulch.html

I don't know of anyone using a soil / sand mixture but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work. It might be worth trying out for a bit, I know people who use mulches with smaller, dusty pieces tend to find that it gets in their eyes and nose, but you certainly could see how it works for you. Maybe others can think of cons that I can't...
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Postby melonhelmet » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:01 pm

Hi Katrina. They only carry Cedar mulch and artificial rubber mulch. Neither of which would be healthy for in the enclosure.

I was also thinking about the smaller particle Cocomulch, but I'd be worried about it getting in the nose too. I'm in a really weired position right now when it comes to substrates.

Isn't pet mountain an american site? (I also need to setup the enclosure this weekend, the old one has just totally started to bulge like crazy (Melamine and humid houses dont mix, AT ALL) Haha.
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Postby Katrina » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:16 pm

I don't know if the site ships to Canada - I just googled it to show you an example of the cypress I use. A guy carries it here in Edmonton and deals it and other products out of his basement, so I know you can get it in Canada for sure... not sure where he goes through though.

I think the smaller particle cocomulch would be similar to the soil mix. Can't hurt to try a couple and see which you like best. Good luck!
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Postby ExtremeJustin » Sat Sep 17, 2011 11:19 pm

I agree on the Carefresh...I would think it would be too dry for an Indo as a permanent substrate. I will be using cypress for my Indo (I've got her on paper towels right now as she moved in before I got more cypress...plus she MIGHT be gravid [or just really fat]). I'm using cypress for my Eastern as I tried carefresh and thought it was way too dry even for an Eastern.

If the shipping thing works you could you Carefresh temporarily until the cypress mulch gets there maybe??? It's incredibly easy to clean out of the cage of all the Carefresh and switch over to cypress mulch.
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Postby critterguy » Sat Sep 17, 2011 11:58 pm

Honestly, the best thing I can think of with those limitations might be either coco fiber(Bed a Beast etc. etc.) or simply astroturf with a large humid hide.
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Postby Anderous » Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:37 am

i really like reptile carpet, i have a large almost burrow like hide system in my cage for my merauke. I switched to it after i first got him and their were large pieces of aspen in his poo.
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Postby melonhelmet » Sun Sep 18, 2011 12:04 pm

ExtremeJustin wrote:I agree on the Carefresh...I would think it would be too dry for an Indo as a permanent substrate. I will be using cypress for my Indo (I've got her on paper towels right now as she moved in before I got more cypress...plus she MIGHT be gravid [or just really fat]). I'm using cypress for my Eastern as I tried carefresh and thought it was way too dry even for an Eastern.

If the shipping thing works you could you Carefresh temporarily until the cypress mulch gets there maybe??? It's incredibly easy to clean out of the cage of all the Carefresh and switch over to cypress mulch.


I could, but I found that Ozzy seemed to eat the carefresh when I had it in the cage temporarly before. I really don't want that LOL.
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Postby melonhelmet » Sun Sep 18, 2011 3:36 pm

Good news! I drove 20 minutes to a bigger pet store in a neighboring town and went in, they carried a Cypress Mulch made by T-Rex. I bought about 3 bags of the stuff (smaller cheap bags) and I'm treating them in the oven now just in case. I like the look of this stuff A LOT more than the Coco-Coir products. It ran me a bit more in terms of dollars and cents, but I'm happy with it.
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