Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I have been wanting to get some coconut fiber substrate for my high humidity enclosures, and also for gardening/vermicomposting. It seems that it is mainly available in the compressed brick form. I have seen it for sale on various reptile supply stores online, as well as in garden supply stores/websites. My question is, are the products sold for reptiles and the products sold for gardening the same thing? They look very similar, but you know what they say about looks. The only thing I can think that would make the products different is that the reptile product could have been processed to have less dust particulates. Would it be safe to use the product sold for gardening with reptiles? Also, I like the coconuts "chips" sold by a few reptile supply websites. Is this product just small pieces of coconut shells? I like this product because the pieces appear too large to be ingested by my reptiles. Does anyone know of a source of this coconut "chips" product, other than those sold for reptile use? I would like to use both the fiber and "chips" products. I would like to hear comments anyone has on either of the products. One more thing, I have seen people post that you can just soak soiled coconut "chips" product in hot water, dry it out, and then reuse it. Is this hygienic? The only way I really see this working it if you dried it in an oven hot enough to sanitize it. Does anyone do this? Thank you all for your help, Josh

You would have to carefully look at the "gardening" type of coconut fiber to make sure it didn't have any "helpful" plant additives or other chemicals added to it. If it is completely untreated, give it a good rinse (or wet it and squeeze it out), and if you don't notice any bugs or any weird smells, you can probably give it a try.

I used the reptile stuff a while back in one cage, it kept humidity well but was just a bit of a pain to clean for my purposes. It probably works great in naturalistic setups though.
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com
1.0 Ball Python, 1.1 Hog Island Boas, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 Green Tree Python

Josh,
Regarding whether or not to use garden-supply coconut fiber, I do not know. I have only used the bricks sold for reptiles.

This substrate has alot of positives and only one negative. For reptiles that require an even somewhat humid environ, this substrate is great. Kingsnakes/milksnakes burrow in it readily and shed easily when kept just slightly damp. I never saw my animals have blisters, etc when kept on it, and I think the trick is to let it dry out between moistening sessions. It is non-toxic, though I tended to feed outside of the cage much of the time.

The only negative is it sticks to your hands and gets in the water bowl no matter how careful you are (not toxic in the water, but I mention it anyway).

You can pour boiling water over it to sanitize and reuse. Obviously you will need to replace it eventually, but the boiled water cleaning does delay the need for complete replacement.