Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found a few tests online for dirt/soil. Found out that a lot of people eat dirt & clay!! I also found out that clay is the finer particles in dirt, so -yes, clay is a powder form. I did a couple quick test on the dirt I use. It's about 90.4% sand, 9.5% silt and about 0.1% clay.

I'm going to do a more controlled test because I was anxious to see the results. One test was staining, which a large amount of clay would stain more. The other test was the feel in the hand test. The silt would be soft, sand - grainy & clay - sticky.

The sand in my dirt is a smaller grain and not much of any large sand particles. The smaller particle size causes the dirt to retain moister longer.

I also used bleach. The site I found this test on was unclear of what was suppose be the out come of the test. I assume it was to see the organic material. I have no organic material in my dirt, but a few things blown in from sitting in the driveway for a couple of weeks.

Isn't clay, carbon and silt? (silt=fines)

Heres the funny part, you are doing great work to determine if your soil has clay or not. But your missing the easist test. And by far the most important test.

This test is done by placing the soil in the cage and seeing if the monitor successfully uses it. If it works, great. If it does not, it does not matter if there is clay or not in it. It will still not work.

If I remember correctly, your soil was sealing when wet down. I may have mentioned this is most commonly caused by clay(it is) But that is not the only cause. Cheers

From what I read, there is a soil pyramid which balances sand, silt & clay. This was made up for growing different types of plants (and not for nesting of monitors).

"Gravel, sand, silt, and clay are terms of grain size; the composition of the grains is immaterial to the definitions. Gravel-size grains have a diameter, or side, longer than 2 millimeters (0.08 in), about the thickness of two dimes in a stack. Sand grain diameters are between 0.0625 and 2 millimeters (0.0025 and 0.08 in), silt grains are between 0.004 and 0.0625 millimeters (0.00016 and 0.0025 in), and clay grains are smaller than 0.004 millimeters (0.00016 in)."

So, to answer your question - from what I read clay is not silt. I would think that at a certain point, clay & silt do the same thing. As you say- seal the soil. Carbon never came up with anything I read.

As for the real test- so far it has past with flying colors. Nothing I can find around here comes close. The test is not finished of course until it is used for nesting.

I use this dirt with my Sulcata Tortoises and they seem to do well, too. I have about two years to go before my oldest female can start testing it for nesting.

Also, I found a Snapping turtle nesting in dirt that seemed to be the same type of dirt. Of course, I never tested it to be the same.

where can you find dirt without organic material in it? just curious, because Any dirt I'm able to find around here (near Rochester NY) seems to have a fair amount of organic material.

Sulcatas are awesome tortoises. I just wish they weren't sold with such little discrimination as to who gets them, know what I mean? I'm working on a russian breeding group right now.