I tried the "no substrate" method for the first time a few years ago. No issue's the first year but the second season I had a few problems. On two different occasions I had snakes drown because they either got under the grate or got their head stuck in the grate trying to burrow down. I have since gone back to using a vermiculite/pearlite mix and placing the egg's directly on the medium. I would suggest that if you use the grate above the medium that you wrap the grate in some type of plastic or nylon mesh so the hatchlings can't get under it or buy some rubberized dish drainer cloth and cut it to size and place it under the grate... Good luck

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• Vermiculite, Hatchrite, Perlite, OH MY!! - DChristensen, Sun Feb 12 09:25:59 2012
• Why use any? - mikebell, Sun Feb 12 10:01:16 2012
• RE: Why use any? - DChristensen, Sun Feb 12 20:05:59 2012
• RE: Why use any? - jdcobra, Sun Feb 12 21:57:44 2012
• RE: Vermiculite, Hatchrite, Perlite, OH MY!! - lairofdragons, Sun Feb 12 11:15:03 2012
• Vermiculite, Hatchrite, Perlite, OH MY!! - jaymiller242, Sun Feb 12 14:06:43 2012
• RE: Vermiculite, Hatchrite, Perlite, OH MY!! - jaymiller242, Sun Feb 12 14:18:22 2012
• Vermiculite - JYohe, Sun Feb 12 19:45:05 2012
• RE: Vermiculite - panhead, Sun Feb 12 22:54:07 2012
• RE: Vermiculite - lairofdragons, Sun Feb 12 23:15:57 2012
• RE: Vermiculite - amos1974, Tue Feb 14 10:13:01 2012
• Plastic Needlepoint Canvas..... - LKirkland, Mon Feb 13 08:27:19 2012
• With Vermiculite or No Substrate - mikebell, Mon Feb 13 08:52:17 2012
• RE: Vermiculite - ssnakes, Thu Feb 16 14:03:17 2012
• RE: Vermiculite - royerreptiles, Tue Feb 21 04:41:53 2012