Yes, I know the dirt subject has been beaten to death, but I have a question that I couldn't find the answer to.



The reasons why I don't like the dirt setup are 1.I don't have a tank that you could use it for (for tunneling). It's a used tank I picked up yesterday for the adopted uro. It's only 48"x13"x13", but she loves it and she's not too big so it works well. 2.I'm closterfobic (don't know how to spell it), and I know this is going to sound really wierd, but I'll try to explain it. I can start to freak out by just sort of thinking about things that would make me closterfobic. For instance, if the thought of being buried alive comes into my mind I feel sort of like I'm about to panic. I don't know if you're familiar with the movie "The Shawshank Redemption", but the part where he has to crawl through the cement sewage tube longer than a football field or something but barely large enough to fit through gets me nervous everytime. Long story short, having the uro in a tank where it can burrow under the dirt would give me an ulser and make me freak out everytime I came in and it was down in the burrow (which would also make her innaccesable to me, something else I don't like).



So I was wondering if there was a way I could still make it comfortable since right now the tank is just basically paper towels on the floor (until we get a fecal done), and rocks to bask on. She's never nervous about people coming and going. She'll sit right there and not even notice you. I just want her to have hides for obvious reasons. I was thinking of doing a base of dirt about 2" tall and then some sort of hiding spot on each end of the tank with some dirt inside of them so she can feel comfortable.



Also Would an inch or two of dirt make a better substrate for my bearded dragon than the sand he's on now? I would like to make a more natural, hardened dirt sort of floor covering. Can the soil/sand/vermiculite make such a combination? If not, what would you suggest be changed? This would be a good question for the beardie forum but they're all stuck on the shelf liner thing right now.



I'm also a little worried that my uro might ingest some of the substrate. She seems to be, for the time being at least, a licker. It seems like she's starting to not do it as much, but I'm not sure. It was for that reason that I am thinking about using millet, but I'd have to mix in some pieces of slate and stuff for her to get good enough footing and that would be hard to clean.



I know this is a little much to ask, but I'd like to see a picture of what the soil/sand/vermiculite stuff looks like. Can you use all store bought stuff for that. I know I should experiment with dirts found outside, but there's really no where that you can find dirt around here that's not eigher filled with roots, grass, earthworms, or other bugs, and it's not really good dirt to work with. All the stream beds around here are muck too. Ooh, almost forgot. With dirt as a substrate, won't the reptiles always be sort of dirty looking? I wouldn't really care, but I like letting them run around the room and dirt is hard to get out of my carpet (as is poop, which my mali has subjected it too time and time again...she doesn't like going in her cage).



Sorry. I know that dirt is a highly covered subject, and if these questions were discussed before, lead me in their direction.



-ryan

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