J
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.
--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.