HELP! Alternative to cypress mulch?

[Dirkthejerk41]

Today I realized I had made the mistake of using a cypress mulch BLEND in my tegu's enclosure....... Can someone please tell me what a good alternative is?? I would just use pure cypress mulch but am not sure where to find it.

I need the alternative to,
A. Be affordable
B. Not be prone to molding
C. Be healthy for my tegu, of course!
D. Hopefully something I can pick up at a hardware store.
E. Hold humidity well.

 

[TheTeguGurl]

Soil and sand mix, Orchard Bark or mulch

 

[Dirkthejerk41]

what do you use?

 

[TheTeguGurl]

Sand soil mix for one enclosure and pure 100% cypress for the rest

 

[Jstew]

I found handling to be very messy when using a soil/sand mix. I prefer the pure cypress personally, but if I was going to do soil sand i'd recommend ecoearth. if there's any humidity in the cage the mix is just a nightmare when it comes to your gu being covered when you take them out.

 

[Dirkthejerk41]

I wasn't able to find pure cypress at home depot or lowes

 

[anelk002]

What's the difference between blend and just mulch.

 

[Dirkthejerk41]

I believe it has other types of wood mixed in (that could be potentially toxic to reptiles)

 

[Diablo]

I use eco earth, it was relatively cheap for me (about 6$ per brick at the store). And when I finish building his final cage I am going to use a blend of eco earth and sand/soil. Unless of course I can find pure cypress anywhere.

 

[BatGirl1]

Dubya and i use peat. Comes in huge bag and that one bag takes 20 gallons of water to soak it to a nice consistancy. It is at home depot and i think i paid like 9 dollars for it. One bag filled my 6x3x3 enclosure. I haven't had any mold yet. I spot clean when needed. Spray down daily with water in a garden sprayer. Niles loves it

 

[Dirkthejerk41]

wait, so you have to soak the peat moss?

 

[Jstew]

Yeah it helps get it to the humidity you're looking for. Also moss is really dirty before a soak I always go through my moss a few times to clean it up. Spraying moss doesn't do justice to what it can do for you.

 

[anelk002]

How is preat moss management wise. Like I don't want dirt bc I feel the tegu will get well. .. dirty lol and spread it in it's water and my floor. Is peat the same. How would coco fiber and husk work?

 

[Jstew]

Peat moss isn't nearly as bad as Eco earth even unrinsed but it shouldn't pose too many problems for you dirty wise. The loose coconut husk isn't as bad as dirt but since most of the time you don't use only that as bedding your mix with that will most likely be dirt.

 

[BatGirl1]

What I did with the peat moss was I opened up the bag and just used a tote to dump it into. I'd fill the tote with the dry peat and put about 2 gallons of water into it at a time. The peat is very dry so it floats to the top. You have to put your hands in there and like squeeze the peat and water together a bunch of times with your hands. You know it's soaked up enough when it turns from a reddish brown to a nice dark, almost black and is the consistancy of like mudpies when you were a child it holds together. I just kept doing this over and over with the dry peat in a tote then adding probably 4 gallons each totefull. It sucks up crazy amounts of water once wet. The dry actually repells water. Strange phenomenon. Anyway... keep doing this, then dumping the wet peat in the enclosure and repeat with more dry. Once it's in the enclosure i spray it once a day until it is nice and damp. Once wet it will soak up water with the sprayer. I use one of those gallon garden sprayers that you pump up with air to get the pressure to make it spray. Every now and then you can turn the peat in the enclosure with a big spoon or whatever you want to use to rotate it up from the bottom. I don't do this often. Like i said, the one bag of peat took around 20 gallons of water. I spent hours working it into the peat but totally worth it because it really holds that moisture once wet. And there are no big chunks like mulch. It's just like dirt or potting soil but doesn't make niles filthy. It falls right off of him when he unburies himself. I like it

 

[BatGirl1]

this is what it looks like.

 

[Dirkthejerk41]

it doesn't mold either?

 

[BatGirl1]

No mold that I have seen. The only mold that happened was when I was sick in bed and niles had pooped and it had some mold on that. But I normally spot clean when he does, and if he gets any food out of his dish on the peat of course if left would mold...but the peat itself stays nice and 'clean ' from what I've seen so far.

 

[Dirkthejerk41]

i picked up some natural cypress mulch at calloways There is actually a visual difference in the pure mulch and the blend, from what I can see. The natural seems to be brighter, more moist, and less dusty!