Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Will someone PLEASE show their Soil Setup(s). Pics/descriptions as basic or detailed as you wish. I am most interested in seeing a burrow. I NEED TO SEE A BURROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will have a picture of my uros burrows for you tommarrow...I promise .

The key to getting a good burrow is playing with diferent grades of soils, not just one type of soil is perfect...I stole that form Proexotics...just giving them credit!

What I did is I took the same approach as Proexotics did and put about 2 feet of a soil mixture into a tank, which is now a trouph, finally . You have no idea how long it took me to find a place that sold trouphs here in CT. A soil that has seen succes before is a 50%topsoil, 25% sand, and a 25% vermiculite mixture. Thats what I use and after about a week of tweaking it to just the right moisture level, My uros are now non stop diggers. I usally add about a gallon of water per week, to give the soil moisture. My tops of the cages are also allmost completly enclosed, again credit to Proexotics.

-Happy Herping,
-Paul

I only have a soil setup fr my tort. I use papertowels for everything else. Sorry!

Its all about what you as a keeper believe by. I use paper towels with my breeding groups of crested geckos. However I would love to have them all on an bio-active substrate, but Since I have so many, it makes my life easier to clean, plus they are an aboreal species so the need for digging doesn't matter, other then when females are about to lay eggs and then a nest box works well. However in my opinion, giving a animal thats terrestrial in all ways and that loves to dig, not access to even a substrate in general, isn't really in the right direction of the long term life and physiological state of the animal. Thats just my two cents. I'm not trying to offend anyone, paper towels work terrific...at times that is.

Happy Herping,
-Paul

Alot of time & effort can be wasted in trying for that near perfect substrate in the small confines of most enclosures. We've never had the luxury of 12-18" soil substrates to allow for burrows. I doubt many folks here do. Trying to reinvent the wheel here is a recurring theme & usually resorts back to the basics after much discussion. Soil or sand works just fine as a shallow substrate so long as the Uros have plenty of access to hides that they can really wedge underneath.
Play sand too dusty? That's why you wash it first.

I got a feeling that resorting back to the basics is just because people are either A. to lazy and don't feel like trying a burrowable soil, B. They can't afford the extra cage, etc....understandbale . C. They are worried about tail rot and all of the above. D. Stubborness of cource in a nice way. However, all I am doing is sapporting is a burrowable soil. Why? Because I have tried it myself and I can't believe the results that I have seen! The exact growth results that Proexotics had...I got! I just sapport the soil theme with a passion now, thats all. You can keep it to your sand and etc.

Happy Herping,
-Paul

I am sorry about my spelling and grammar. I seem to knotice my mistakes after I post and re-read them haha.

I agree with Paul (kich4theanswer). Soil really is a great thing. I also used ProExotics website to make my soil mix. I happen to be very close to the largest granite pits in Texas, and found some pretty good decomposed granite that I mixed with a bag of cheapo topsoil and got a good mix. You just have to try out lots of different combinations until you get a good one. I only have maybe 5 or 6 inches of soil at the deepest point, and the average is around 4 inches, and my uro is able to utilize it just fine to make burrows. It's good to have it as deep as possible, but even a little really helps. He started to grow better and be more active when I switched it over.

Marvin's tail in his burrow

The only full pic I have of the cage is a bit old and I've redone it a bit. If you want, I can snap a new one so you can see the whole thing.

Hey,
Very nice picture! I have to crop some of my pictures down a bit before I can upload them onto kingsnake, but hopefully soon I can post a few of mine .

Happy Herping,
-Paul

Now THAT looks a LOT better(and drier)than I expected. NICE!
nice work man.

quote:"You Like???? I LIKE!!!!! Moisture...."Dixie Wetsworth(MadTV)
Yes I KNOW i'm crazy!

I just find the papertowels much easier when caring for more then one lizard or snake as i have 17 herps in 1 bedroom i am not trying to make anything nice or pretty i am trying to make it liveable and able for me to see what they are eating and pooping and so on. Also, soil can get to moist or to dry and be a bit dusty. Papertowels aren't dusty and is VERY VERY cheap. Also is always available. I do have a sdigging spot available for my uro it's just with carefresh bedding and a cardboard box. Which he loves!

I have 23 herps in my beedroom and I still use soil haha. However I am the type of person who believes in the most natural and best possible needs of my herps. Even though it takes 8 hours out of my saturdays to clean out various setups....I love doing it! Its a passion that I will never lose. I'm not trying to disrespect you or your ways of keeping, because your lizard looks terrific by that picture . You should keep on doing what your doing. All I am trying to do is sapport an idea that I truely believe is in the right direction for the future of uromastyxs.

By the way, in fact most soil setups are indeed dry! The only issue that some folks have is that the humidity is a bit on the high side, but we have yet to see issues...am I wrong? Most soils will have a nice crust on the top, but the bottum layers are perfect for holding a burrow.

Happy Herping,
-Paul

Yes i agree with you and there is nothing wrong with soil setups. Except i spend 3 hrs cleaning all tanks verses 8. LOL.....I think it's a good idea and alot better then sand!! Good luck and keep up the good work.