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i am getting a blue tongue skink and was wondering if cypress mulch it okay to use. any help is great

I have used cypress for Blue Tongues without any problems. I did feed them on large paper plates to be sure they were not eating any of it. I have also used aspen, carefresh and newspaper and all of those worked well too. Hope this helps.

Rob

now what about borrowing into the cypress? do they do it?

In my experience, if allowed to burrow they will. Not to the extent of some fossorial snakes will but they will. If burrowing is concern, an alternative would be to use a layer of cypress that is not deep enough to burrow but have appropriate hiding places throughout the enclosure. Hope this helps.

Rob

I've never kept Tiliqua but all my friends' have dug plenty.

Another alternative to the cypress is coir, or coconut fiber. If you get the stuff that isn't ground super-fine (like the little bricks we all know), you'll see that it's more "hairy" and less "splintery" than cypress (or aspen). So, it might be less hazardous to feed your animals on.

Like cypress, coir is a great humidity buffer, it lasts a long time, and it's not prone to molding (like aspen is if you get it damp).

Unlike cypress it's available year-round, nationwide, and it's basically an agricultural waste product, not (like cypress) a target-product for unsustainable forest harvesting that's particularly hard on herps.

here's an example:
http://plantitearth.com/store/product.asp?id=515

cheers,
Jimi

well im in florida and i can get cypress mulch year round. i like the way it looks so i was wondering if its okay. so your saying just put a lot of hides and and just put the needed layer on the bottom. plus the front of the cage i have it 1/2 chicken wire so the small stuff you recomended will just come out of those holes.

...with substrate falling out of the front wire mesh, get a small peice of 1x2 stripping or something similar, and place it across the bottom...really helps to prevent a mess!
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-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 Dumeril's boa (Hannibal)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
0.0.1 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amel. corn snake (Morgan LaFay) RIP
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.1 garden phase amazon tree boas (Pegasus, Lenore)
0.0.1 baby yellow amazon tree boa (affectionately called
Snuggles)
0.0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (maybe Octavian)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 bassett hound/black and tan coonhound mix (Luke)
0.1 Boxer (Zoe)
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
2.0 rats (Pan, no name yet)