What Kind Of Substrate?

[joejacobs]

my tegu has been eating pieces of his cyprus mulch alot. he passes it through fine each time, but id rather not take any chances. what kind of sunstrate should i use without using any kind of barks? please help.

 

[isdrake]

I'm no expert but I have been using a mix of soil and humus and it's been good so far. I have no problem with the humidity, it works good for digging and it isn't toxic. So I would say it qualifies as a substrate. Plus it looks a lot better then cypress.

If anyone has any better suggestion I would love to hear them too.

 

[Jefroka]

I still have cypress as part of mine's substrate but removed all the large pieces as he was eating the heck out of them but fortunately never became impacted. Some of the pieces he ate were down right scary large.

I now use a mix of cypress, kiln dried pine shavings, top soil, sphagnum moss and coco fiber.


...Jefroka

 

[Adam87]

yea i havnt seen my gu actualy eat the cypress but he always pushes it on his plate so i push it off for him to only push it back on like he wants to bury it and save it for later haha but i heard that pine is actually bad is that true?

 

[Dom3rd]

I switched to hay and mine love it

 

[DaveDragon]

Hay molds easily.

 

[Jefroka]

yea i havnt seen my gu actualy eat the cypress but he always pushes it on his plate so i push it off for him to only push it back on like he wants to bury it and save it for later haha but i heard that pine is actually bad is that true?

I've read that regular old pine could present problems, probably because of resins the bark will release, but I have read that kiln dried pine shavings are a suitable substrate for reptiles. Horse bedding is kiln dried pine shavings.


...Jefroka

 

[joejacobs]

does anybody use eco-earth? it looks good but i would have to buy a lot of it to fill my enclosure and its kindof expensive. if i was to mix topsoil with my cyprus where should i buy the topsoil? im thinking home depot's soil has a lot of bugs in it. idk

 

[Jefroka]

does anybody use eco-earth? it looks good but i would have to buy a lot of it to fill my enclosure and its kindof expensive. if i was to mix topsoil with my cyprus where should i buy the topsoil? im thinking home depot's soil has a lot of bugs in it. idk

If I'm not mistaken eco-earth and coco fiber is the same thing. You buy it in bricks that expand in warm/hot water. You can get a deal buying it in bulk. Petsmart always has the stuff in stock.

I use top soil from H.D. I have never had problems with their top soil. Just make sure you are buying 100% top soil, some products are a mix of top soil and various mulch types.


...Jefroka

 

[Jason]

I use eco earth, or a comparable bedding. It's great for humidity, and holds the shape of his or her burrow well. Ollie seems to like it. it is rather expensive in large quantities though, I might switch to something else once ollie grows out of his little tank. I'm sure there's somewhere online you can order in bulk and get a deal, or atleast better prices than the pet stores.

 

[Jefroka]

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Pretty cheap actually & the bricks go a long way.


...Jefroka