Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im planning to build a new encloseure in my garrage for my black throats. Im going to use a 10' circular trough like pro exotics have built. Ill be useing radiant heat pannels for ambiant heat with a helix controling them. Ill be useing ceramic heat emitters for basking spots. Now to my question I have a good source for clean silty dirt that I use on all my monitors but I would love to try decomposed granite. The thing is I cannot find it anywhere. Does anyone know where I can find it within a hundred miles of Indianapolis. Thanks for your time. Ian

Years ago I worked grounds at an amusement park in the Adirondacks and they used that stuff for walkways. Back then before cool hip pc terms like decomposed granite it was called stone dust. On the grounds crew we reffered to it with words that were not hip pc nor suitable for those hip home improvement shows, or for this forum. My point is decomposed granite is a nasty material that is hard to get a shovel through and is even worse when it gets wet at which point it is almost like hardened concrete. you might want to stick with dirt.

No offense, but decomposed granite is exactly that and always have been. At least as long as I have been around(long time)

Decomposed granite is naturally occurs, from wet freeze. The surface absorbs water then freezes, this causes the surface to decompose.

Crushed stone or rock, is just that also. Its man made, a crusher.

I agree, crushed stone is horrible for a monitor substrate. Decomposed granite is much better, but not great by any means.

Of course I have seen many monitors in nature in very granitic areas, but they do get the freedom of choice. They pick what they like. As there are all types of granitic soils. Cheers

I guess I should have been more clear. I plan on mixing It with the Dirt I currently use so that thier burrows will hold better much like some sand for. Thanks Ian

the DG that we use is definitely better when used as a mix with some topsoil. of course it took 5 years to "stumble on" that : )

i have heard from a number of folks that have found DG locally in their area, and i don't think a single one has found one that is a fine enough grade to use. it is always the coarser stuff that hardens like cement when it dries.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

I found it at Home Depot in So Cal where I live, in .5 cu ft bags for 3.87/bag. I'm not sure if its the "pink" variety, but its heavy as hell, 40 lbs for the bag. I bought 24 bags and will mix it with top soil to lighten up the 300 gal tank I am going to put it in. I think this way the DG will act as a hardener for the soil for good burrows. One thing tho, the first Home Depot I went to wouldnt sell it to me because they were sending it back to the supplier since no one ever bought it. I have to go to another, newer HD to get it.