Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I live in Southern California in Orange County. I was wondering what local people are using for their soil/dirt mixes for their monitors. I am looking to get some ackies and want to know what mix to use. Do you go down to the local Home Depot of Lowes or are you getting it from somewhere else? So if you are from SD,OC, or LA any help would me nice. Thank you all in advance.

Tri

In the ground, in a field. No mix. Try different dirt. There is alot of different dirt in SoCal. Look around.

Search the forums.

Sean

I live in Orange County, sadly enough. There is a huge open dirt lot that is uninhabited near my house, and I just dig up dirt there.

The last time I was there shoveling dirt into my car I turned around and a cop was standing right in front of my face. He had some serious attitude and after I was finally able to tell him I was just "digging up dirt" he eventually left me alone. Obviously had nothing better to do than harass someone minding their own business and causing no trouble.

Good thing mother earth doesn't sue people for borrowing her dirt.

"Poe Poe" probably thought you were buring a body or a murder weapon.

Car trunk open and digging in an empty lot... Nah, nothing suspicious about that.

haha. I was at the end of a moderately travelled road, not like I was in the middle of the country. Also, it was during the day and I was shoveling dirt into a bucket in my car. Perhaps I was trying to bury someone in my trunk instead? He mentioned something about people using metal detectors there and wanted to see if I found something? I just kept thinking to myself, Im busy, go away. Surely I would have shared the dirt with him, if he would have found as much value in it as I did.

Your in luck buddy. I live in Anaheim & I can give you some great dirt for free. I bought from a construction company a while back. They filled up my whole bed of my truck with decomposed granite. Ive been using it for my waters for a year & it should work really well for ackies. Send me a private message if your interested & I'll give you my number.

Theres 2 places in our area that sell decomposed granite, theres one near baldwinpark/irwindale, and another in anaheim area vicinity not sure exactly where. You can look those two places up by goin to Yahoo! Local, simply typing in 'decomposed granite,' and for my 48" long x 18" wide x 20" tall tank, the price is $10 for a quarter of a yard, pretty generous portion for my size tank. I called both places, the anaheim place charges more because I guess its the minimum payment amount, but they also have a different color of DG, it had a fancy name with "gold" in it, and the rep said at an angle it glitters like pieces of gold. GL.

there are many types/grades of DG, most is not usable. we are now using a mix of DG/soil/sand in a mix, and i like it as the best yet. still can improve though.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Thanks everyone for your help. I will do my research and find out what works best for me. Thanks again.

Tri

I'm using a mix of topsoil and decomposed rock (not granite, not in Florida) and sand that my Argus enjoy. You will have to try different things out and see what the lizards like as Robyn said.

Any chance somebody can post a picture of D/G. I live in Ct. and think it must be similiar to what we call stone dust. I used to landscape and never heard of decomposed granite out in these here parts.

Yes it is stone dust, or pulverized rock, etc....has many names. You want a finer grade of it. Look at Proexotics site where they have a pink heap of it and snow melting outside. People use it to tamp down before laying a stone patio sometimes. It soaks water like perlite (sort of).

here's a pic of DG with a little sand mixed in

Thanks guys. I'm going to get some and give it a try.