Substrate help!?

[LarissaLurid]

I've seen all different substrates used for skinks, but I want mine to be as happy as possible. I have a 3.5 month old Merauke BTS and at the moment s/he is in large wood shavings. I do not feed in the tank so ingestion will not be a problem with whichever I decide to go with. S/he loves to burrow and has no problem doing that in the wood shavings, especially in the burrow hide I set up that's fill with wood shavings s/he can go into whenever. I've always hated wood shavings as a substrate and have refused to use it with all of my other many pets. I'm looking for a more natural substrate though and want to make sure it's going to make him/her as happy as possible and make sure that digging will still be easy enough and not uncomfortable in the substrate that I choose. I can use Cypress Mulch that will already be around for my Tegu, and was considering that as an option. Is this better than using the wood shavings and is there something even better than both of these? Please help!

[WanderingChai]

Cypress Mulch should do just fine, so would Wood Shavings. I would use Cypress Mulch personally.

P.S. Make sure to post tegu pics in Everything Off Topic!!!

[LarissaLurid]

Yea I was thinking they would be better, something more natural even if he gets a little dirty lol. Plus looks a lot better. Just didn't know if there was anything even better than that.

[WanderingChai]

If you search the older posts, I bet you could find really great substrates that some people use. Just make sure to not resurface any old threads!

[Karibell85]

My Hector loves the Coconut fibers. its great! nice and fluffy and easy to burrow in. http://www.petdiscounters.com/Eco-Earth-Coconut-Fiber-Substrate_p_9919.html

[LarissaLurid]

I'll have to get more familiar with the site and look around at what people have said. :]

Hmm, yea I actually do have some coco fiber around from what I used for my scorpion and one of the substrates in my leos humidity hide. Perhaps I'll get more and mix it with a little bit of cypress mulch or something. :3

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Cypress is the best

[LarissaLurid]

Cypress is the best

Yea I figured I'd use it since it's already needed for the tegu, but everyone keeps telling me a lot of different things. I just was talking to some other people and they said I should do a peat/sand mixture. Hmmm :/ I just want to make sure I get what my skink will be happiest in and will enjoy burrowing in most. So many decisions.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Not many people have tried any sand mixtures yet. So untill we are sure of how it will effect the skinks, we recommend cypress for gigas species like you have. And aspen for scincodes( forgot how to spell it) species.

[amcurls]

I use cypress mulch with sphagnum moss in hides for my Meraukes and IJ. They do fine with it and burrow quite well thru it.

[LarissaLurid]

I use cypress mulch with sphagnum moss in hides for my Meraukes and IJ. They do fine with it and burrow quite well thru it.

Good to hear from someone who uses cypress mulch. I have moss as well :] Hmm looks like I have some ideas to think about

[Katrina]

Welcome!!

Cypress is great, the only downside I find is the environmental implications. But there is no single best substrate, it depends on your climate, the species of BTS and your personal preference. There are lots of great options, cypress is definitely one of them.