Ryan I read your post on the other forum, I think you still don’t understand.

The compactable material goes at the bottom, it’s mostly sand.
Theirs a reason I only add 20-30% top soil to my sand, it helps keep the humidity and hold a borrow, other then this I try to avoid all organic material.

The reason reptiles don’t normally nest in organic mater, is because of fungus, microbial and insects live in organic materials, these will kill the eggs long before they hatch, your female knows this.

In my cages all resident bugs live on the top layers, not in the nesting material.
All lizards understand sand, in fact most will nest in sand, some will prefer sand-gravel mix, others sand-dirt mix especially if these are covered with a few inches of moss or leafs, species witch prefer the sand-gravel will prefer nesting under slabs or flat rocks heated by the sun.

All the above mix are mineral rich, they drain easy and don’t promote bacterial, they also have similar ph levels, this in any place in the world.

None of these properties can be attributed to commercial herp litters, and peat moss is to high in ph and stick to all orifice of your reptiles. This is in my 5 top worst medium.

Top 5 worst
1, cedar
2, silica
3, pine
4, peat moss
5, cypress mulch, wood nuggets
Reptiles do not understand these in anyway, they may use it because they have no choice.
Top 5 best
1, sand
2, dirt
3, sphagnum moss
4, leaf litter (oak, hard wood)
5, all hard wood ships (chips made by chain saws) perfect size
Reptiles from anywhere in the world understand these materials, they know how to use them.

I am not considering any type of carpet, news paper or coconut whatever as something remotely useful to any reptiles, these are crap period. They are totally alien materials to reptiles.
I bet none even knew how to use these materials, welcome to herpetoculture!

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