Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi ive been keeping my savannahs on that eco earth substrate I picked up from the petstore. Im planning on moving them on topsoil and was just wondering where is a good place to buy that. I was gonna go check my local home depot or lowes. Does anyone else here do that and if you do please let me know what type you use cause there is so many out there...Any help would be nice thanks.

plain topsoil doesn't usually work well. you have to mix it with something else, usually some type of sand.

the point is, don't just throw it in there and declare "tada!" and think you are finished : )
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

ic what your mean. I should mix % playsand into it. Let me know if thats right.

yea I get it from home depot or lowes and you just buy the plain stuff no fertilizers or anything and i mix mine with play sand....
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Tom
1.2.0 Leopard Gecko (dot, spot, leo)
0.0.1 California King Snake (booboo)
0.1.0 Sulcata Tortoise (tank)
0.0.2 Russian Tortoise (tito and lulu)
0.0.2 Red Ear Sliders (bernie and ernie)
0.0.3 Painted Turtles (larry, curly and moe)
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (marshmellow)
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor (beef)
1.0.0 Peachfront Conure (kermit)
0.1.0 Australian Shepheard (layla)
2.1.0 Crazy Cats (babe, sabastian, tinkerbell)
0.1.0 Lion Head Rabbit (daisy)
0.1.0 Ferret (jordan)
0.2.0 Guinea Pigs (lilly and petunia)
0.0.1 White Tree Frog (dumpy jr.)
0.0.2 Fire Belly Newts (spork and blaze)
0.0.1 Fire Belly Toad (ferdinan)
0.0.1 Red Spotted Newt ( red)
0.0.2 Bull Frogs (goliath and tubby)
0.0.1 Rainbow Ameive (jack)
0.0.1 Spectacled caiman (wilbert)
0.0.3 Green Anoles
1.0.0 Bahama Anole
0.0.1 Long Tail Grass Lizard
Lots Of Fish

Actually, that is not the best way to think about their substrate needs.

Monitor species seem to be evolved to particular types of soil. It appears to be very important to them, even in nature. They tend to occur in a species specific habitat. They are very predictable that way.

With that in mind, if you have an arid land species, that they are that because of the arid land. So they require poor desert soils. They are adapted to where they occur. They know how to choose and work that type of soil. Even certain soils in a larger area.
Other species, like forest type monitors, of course understand rich acid soils, and know how to use them or how to use tree hollows instead.

Still other species like types that overlap these types of habitats understand both, like Kimberlys or even Some types of timors.

The point is, one type of soil is not for all species.

When you put the wrong type of soil, you may as well put in newspaper, as they will not "understand" how to use something they are not programed to understand.

Remember, they do not go to school so they are not taught to do things not inherent to them(instint) If they did, they would be living in Manhatten and driving a beamer(working on wall street)

So they are restricted to "understanding" what is inherent to them.

So if your confused, maybe a "better" question would be, what kind of substrate works best for the particular species or individual you have. Most monitor books give habitat type, and its useful for you to use that information. Cheers

When you put the wrong type of soil, you may as well put in newspaper, as they will not "understand" how to use something they are not programed to understand.

I hope new owners don't take that literally!

Susan.

I think I meant it literally. That is, a poor choice of substrate is a poor choice of substrate, it doesn't matter if its the wrong soil type or newspaper, they are BOTH bad.

I am really not sure how to say this, but there is no yes or no here, Newpaper has some uses, you can keep a monitor healthy on newspaper. But its very limited as to what actual benefit it has for the monitor. Particularly when you are looking to include normal behaviors for the caged monitor.

Most here, do not include normal behaviors, most do not know what these behaviors are. Oh of course, basic behaviors like feeding and pooping, is the normal goal. So to those folks, newspaper may be fine. But not for the animal.

The point of my post was, monitors know how to use some tools, these are the tools that are included in their normal habitat. Things from other habitats, may be of no use to them, because they do not know how to use them. An example. Water monitors know how to hunt in water, above and below it. Yet, other species, only know how to hunt above it. Our gouldi types and even lacies, do not understand how to find food in the water, unless its swiming on the surface. They simply would starve if a mouse is underwater. But if you take that same mouse out of the water and place it on land, they will eat it up.

Well, that goes for substrate, If its a soil they do not inherently understand, they ignore it like it was not there.

A common statement here is, my burrowing species of monitor does not burrow. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm odd statement, but very common here. How could a burrowing species of monitor, not burrow????? Yea think it forgot how???

Lets go back, if you read about the gouldi group, books will state that V.flavirufus, lives in sandy areas, while V.panoptes, lives in wetlands and V.gouldi, lives in hardpack soils. WHY would it say that? Now, why would all these similar monitors not live in the other places?

The truth is, you can find them in the exact same areas, and yes, V.flavirufus perfers sandy areas, and gouldi is not limited to sandy areas, and will include hardpack soils, and yes, in the same area, V.panoptes will pick wetter situations or moister areas. WHY?

This goes for all monitors, They simply do not understand what is foreign to them. So the wrong substrate type is wrong, whether its newspaper or topsoil.

I understand you are now believing that newspaper is bad, and your right, but only compared to something better. The questions is, does that make a totally foreign soil type better? No it doesn't, in many cases it wrong soil type is worse. It can be slimy and muddy, full of rotting material, etc etc. In that case, newspaper is better.

On the otherhand, the right substrate is better.

One little analogy, If I gave you this fancy tool, but you do not know how to operate it, what good is that tool? If you do not know how to work it or what it does, its of no good what so ever. Cheers

I know what you meant and it's an interesting subject I will admit. My point was more aimed at keeping the humidity levels up, rather than all the other benifits having the correct soil provides. I'm a huge fan of giving them dirt to dig in and could probably learn a lot from you in regards to providing a substrate, closer to the ideal for my monitors, but for now, I give them topsoil/sand mix 70/30-ish.

Susan.

Also Toys R US has pre washed playsand for only 4.99 for a 50 lbs bag