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Substrate / Soil Mixtures for Ambystomid / Burrowing Salamanders

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jason

Guest
I wanted to start this string just to see what other people were using as substrate mixtures for their ambystomids and other burrowing salamanders. Here's a previous post about some of my experience.

--In the past I've used things like the Exo Terra Jungle Earth mulch or Repta Bark, mixed with topsoil and coconut husk with a dash of peat moss for moisture retention. I found that the mulch made the soil too compacted for my tiger sals to burrow. Also, I stopped using the as much peat moss as I did because of all the posts on its pH (although I used some test strips and it seemed to be neutral, but still, it just gets nasty after a while.)--

With this old mixture I had a problem with lots of those 'springtails' (I guess that's what they were, they looked like little mites.)

--What I use now is Bed-A-Beast coconut husk fiber mixed with ESU Jungle Mix Lizard Litter. (Its a mix of sterilized virgin organic soil, fine grain sand, vermiculite, peat moss, orchid bark and green tree moss) with some moss bedding on top. It is so soft! If I where a salamander I would love to sleep in it. Now they burrow like crazy, and the burrows hold up decently too. I mixed two blocks of bed-a-beast and the whole bag of lizard litter and it filled like 5-6 inches of my 20gal long my two tiger sals are in and 5 in the plastic tub where my new sal is in quarantine.

Just to assure that the tigers always have an underground den, I made one out of some plastic lumber left over from the deck. That stuff is HEAVY, but its great cuz it will never rot or seep chemicals like treated wood will. As far as plants, I have a little philodendron and a fern, they all seems to be doing quite well in the mixture.--

I've read that some of you were using topsoil, I was wondering what kind it was. I had used this kind I bought from home depot called "Earthgro" because I was certain it didn't have anything like fertilizers in it. But it turned out to be really clay-like and didn't seem conducive to burrowing. It was nasty and black, plus it stained everything.

Since some of the searches I did on soil mixtures were so spread out in the forums, it might help people in the future if everyone shared their experience here. That would be real cool.
 
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jesse

Guest
actually i use earthgrow soil on the bottom layes of my tiger sals tank, with the gravel, a very thin layer below, and a thincker layer above. Then i use a mixture of bedabeast, lizardlittler and some leaves from my mothers garden (she doesnt use chemicals in her garden and its kind of indoors. I also ordered some sow bugsfrom a biological company and bougth some earthworms to put in there to scavenge. As for live plants i also use philedanderion, or pothos i dont really know which is which, ivy is also good. Letting beas sprout os a good way to provide food for crickets, so they dont bite the salamander.
 

morg

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When I kept tiger sals, I tried various substrates, but in the end found that plain garden soil worked best.
I would either collect soil thrown up in mole hills on a field nearby, or from my own garden.
The soil was put into the tank at a depth of 4-6 inches and firmed down.
The first few hours after a substrate change would have the sals excavating new tunnels and burrows, where they would sometimes stay for weeks on end.
 
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alan

Guest
Composted bark "soil improver". This is available from garden centres in the UK, not sure about the colonies. NB: composted bark mulch, not bark chips.
 
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kaysie

Guest
I use nice, plain dirt. I get springtails too, but they help to break down waste, so a few are good for the tank. You just dont want so many that your sals are being annoyed.
 
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alan

Guest
Yup, springtails and woodlice are great housekeepers, but even springtails have to eat
talker.gif

If you get over-run, they have too much "food", so it's time to change the substrate.
 
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jesse

Guest
actually when i had some small slender salamanders i used to get baby wood lice and spring tails from my tigers tank and feed them to the slenders. It was really convenient, much better tham tearing through logs for termites like i usually did to feed those little guys, i miss them!
 

colin

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One of my other interests is in keeping carnivorous plants and a wee tip i picked up, was to put soil destined for a plant into the microwave for a few minutes as that kills all those annoying wee flies that emerge from some garden centre's soil. I'm sure that it would do the same job to sprintails etc...

Obviously some of you like/need springtails but just thought I'd share that...
happy.gif
 
J

jason

Guest
Its just that with that old soil mixture I used, the springtails looked like they were taking over, even if it hadn't been that long between substrate changes. Now they look 'normal' (whatever that may be.)

I use the woodlice too, they do a great job of cleaning up waste. I put together a cork background out of odd shaped pieces, and tucked moss in between the cracks. It creates a nice effect, but sometimes a mold or a fungus will grow back there. That's where the woodlice save the day. Plus, its cool to look back there every once and a while to see what everyones doing. They have a little colony going on.
 
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kaysie

Guest
I think a "normal" number of springtails is somewhere in then 100 range, give or take the size of the enclosure. I've got kind of a population boom going on right now, but its not that bad. If it does get worse, then I'll change out the soil. But they do a great job at keeping the tank clean. Maybe if my sals didnt poop so much... lol
 
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jason

Guest
Adler Rd. crosses the road I live on, N. Saint Joseph Ave. a few miles north of me.
 
J

jason

Guest
Are you trying to pull up a satellite image of my house or something? I already have one.
happy.gif
 
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jesse

Guest
sorry for all the questions i weas jsut curious since my gf lived on adler road right infront of the lake.
 
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james

Guest
Just to reopen this old thread, I've just changed my substrate to multi-purpose compost from the garden centre (it was gravel before)for my tiger sal. Trouble is I'm a bit worried now about the plant nutrients it contains. Could these be harmful? Should I change again?
 
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