Terrarium/Vivarium Design Ideas?

[The Bearded Derek]

Does anyone know of any good naturalistic styled vivariums for blue tongues? In about a week or so I'm gonna make my skink's new cage and I would like to make it as naturalistic as possible but I can't really think of any ideas. I tried googling some pictures of vivariums for BTs but most are just plain and simple. It seems I may have to do mine completely from scratch, but before I do that, I would like to ask a few questions.

Would my skink eat the plants? I know they eat veggies and greens (Mine wouldn't dare eat greens/veggies unless mixed with something), but would they actually just eat straight off the plant?

What kind of plants can I add? Which would be the easiest? I've seen a list of safe plants for chameleons and other plant eating reptiles (Uro's, Beardies, Iguanas), would that same list work for these guys? I know he's big and could trample over most of the plants, but I was also thinking of adding epiphytic plants (Plants that grow on trees/wood) on the back of the tank, since i'm gonna add a cork bark background for him.

Would a tank like this work?
I would like to do something very similar to this for my skink.

Has anyone used this product?: http://www.lugarti.com/bedding-substrat ... dding.html
It sounds like a pretty good product, but I wanna know if anybody here has tried it specifically for their skink. If it's better than excavator clay, I would very much like to use it for caves.

My skink isn't that big, by the way (Don't know why, he's already about 3 years old), he's only about 18 inches long, isn't that girthy, compared to others i've seen, even for his subspecies. I don't think he may trample plants that easily, at least not large ones.

[NickBrahz]

Had a look at the substrate, very odd that they talk over and over about how great it is and what isn't in it but then give no information on what is actually in the mix.

It is possible that your skink will chow down on the plants, some people even have there skinks try to eat the fake plants.

[The Bearded Derek]

Would he chow down on just about any plant? I may add vines or plants on the wall that's out of his reach if that's the case. As long as he won't eat the dead leaves like the one in that picture. I've never seen mine attempting to eat the fake plants, he has broken it quite a lot from trampling it almost daily. I just checked out his website a little, he appears to have some terrarium grass that looks pretty nice. Would BTs also eat that?

I checked it out too, there was a post on a gecko forum that the person that makes that substrate said what it was. "NRB is made of a very specific blend of peat moss, a very fine sand that you can almost not see and a natural mold inhibitor derived from blueberries. All ingredients are 100% natural and organic." I didn't get to finish reading it, but I just wanted to post it here to see what you guys would say, especially if anyone used it for their BTS.

I also wanted to ask something else, would it be possible to add a bio-active substrate? I've heard of little insects that can be in a substrate that eat leftover food and poop in the cage. Was wondering if that could work for a BT also.

[Susann]

Would he chow down on just about any plant?

There is no way to tell; some try to eat all of them always, some try sometimes, some only try some plants, some always eat some plants, some only try them when they're hungry, some never try eating any regardless of anything, and so on... All plants carry some risk, but so do all substrates. Trial and error. Always keep an eye on your skinks and their poops any time you're adding anything new or different to the tank.

Here is a link about "safe" plants for your terrarium --not BTS specific, but you likely won't find a BTS-specific list because I don't think anyone has studied plants that may be safe for other lizards but not BTS.
http://www.lllreptile.com/articles/2-li ... terrarium/

would it be possible to add a bio-active substrate?

Sure. Absolutely. xxmonitorlizardxx has done bio-active, maybe message him?

[The Bearded Derek]

I'll possibly put only like 3 plants in his cage. Most likely a dwarf umbrella plant, swedish ivy, a flowery plant (Maybe fuschia), and a Coleus plant.

I'll definitely message him as soon as I finish the terrarium for him.

[VuzeDroid]

I'm running a hybrid terrarium, real dirt with moss ground coverage to eliminate smell, and we other real plants. But also a large fake plant so it all stays in check and not out of control