Can peat moss be used as a substrate for a beardie? Impaction? Too moist? Thanks!
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Peat Moss?
Shellabelle1980
Feb 20, 2007 12:33 PM
Replies (2)
Komodoryu
Feb 20, 2007 02:20 PM
Seems to me like it would hold to much moisture
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1 amel female corn snake adult
1 Anitheristic male corn snake adult
1 amel female corn snake baby
1 Blood red Hypo female baby
1 phantom blue merle toy australian shepherd
1 black cat (possibly burmese)
BDlvr
Feb 20, 2007 04:18 PM
I'll take the liberty to quote another poster I agree with from an earlier posting.
"peat moss is not a good substrate for bearded dragons. When dry, it tends to be dusty (fine particles). It absorbs moisture which can cause problems if ingested accidently. It doesn't pack down that much nor turn very hard. It will form clumps and be relatively firm but can easily be dug up. However to get it in this state, it will have to be moistened, pushed down and left to bake under the lights, which means you either have to house your dragon in another cage till it dries (which may take a couple days, depending on how thick the layer is). Otherwise it would just raise the humidity too high for dragons to tolerate, which could lead to things like respiratory infections, if exposed to it too long.
Sphugnum moss (which peat moss is made from, or is part of it) is great for humid loving reptiles, such as dart frogs, various species of snakes, geckos, etc. but not good for semi arid dwelling animals. It would be fine to use say, in the egg laying bin for a gravid female, but not as a cage substrate.
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PHLdyPayne"
