Reptile & Amphibian Forums

is there any other substrate to use in dragon egg laying than vermaculite. I cant find it anywhere. Please help.

you could use soil. just make sure that it is the kind without fertilizer...which is also hard to find. Most potting soils have some sort of fertilizer in them. I use soil for my lay boxes.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

thanks alot man.

pretty much anything that can hold its shape when slightly damp can be used as an egg laying medium. Soil is good, and it shouldn't be too hard to buy chemical free potting soil. Typically it costs about $.50 a bag (5 pound or there about). Worse comes to worse, buy a bag of children's washed play sand, keep it slightly damp and pack it down firmly.
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PHLdyPayne

Oh, best place to look for vermiculate are garden centers, feed/seed stores, etc. You will need it to incubate the eggs as well, though for incubation, you can use perlite as well (find it same places as vermiculate), that new Hatch rite stuff pet stores have can be used as well. Sphagnum moss can be used as a last ditch medium as well.
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PHLdyPayne

I always used soil in the past, but had trouble with one of my dragons this year so I changed to sand. I worried the whole time that it might collapse but It worked really well in the end and the girls didn't get so dirty. lol.

i might acutally try this....thanks bdlvr....

it takes 2-3 weeks to fully clean out my females sand bed after i use soil in her lay beds. I make my lay boxes out of plastic rubbermaid shoe box. when they are about to lay i put the box in her normal cage and she will lay there. but she always makes a mess! maybe next year i'll try the "sand-baox"
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon