Reptile & Amphibian Forums

could someone recommend a good substrate for a blackthroat monitor?

i've been using cypress mulch forever but now i can't find it anywhere, and the closest place (30 miles away) wants $10 a bag/3sq ft. that'll cost a fortune to fill my enclosure.

i've heard pine bark nuggets were ok, but i heard that pine shavings are bad because of the oils in it.

i really don't want to use any soil either, i wold like to be able to clean it easily and be healthy too.

thanks!

go to proexotics.com and just read the FAQ section.

A good soil substrate is easy to clean and maintain, and would BE the healthiest choice.

Cypress would be a distant, distant second choice. And then nothing at all after that. Not a lot of options, but a good soil is certainly the best option.
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robyn@proexotics.com

ShipYourReptiles.com
Pro Exotics Reptiles

the walls and floor of the enclosure are bare plywood, so i don't think it's a good idea for me to keep wet or damp substrate in there.

he does have a huge rubbermaid tub with damp cypress in it to hide in, but i don't wet his enclosure.

do i have to wet the soil to keep it tidy and easy to clean, or will dry soil be ok? (dry seems like a dusty hassle)

thanks for your response! and everyone else too, very helpful, thank you!

You can either keep a dessicated and dry cage that will kill your monitor but keep the cage in good shape, or you can keep a healthy setup for your monitor that will rot and destroy plywood.

You have chosen a poor material for a cage. I would suggest addressing the cage limitations. Try starting again, but using a metal trough for the base to hold the substrate, build from there. There is a bunch of info on that on our FAQ at our site.

We have all made poorly thought out false starts. Here is your chance to start again and do it better.

Best of luck.
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robyn@proexotics.com

ShipYourReptiles.com
Pro Exotics Reptiles

I just ordered more cypress bedding today from www.reptiledepot.com. It comes in a large size (48 qts), which will save you money.

http://www.reptiledepot.com/substrateall.html

the 3 cubic feet of cypress mulch i buy is $10. that's about 90 quarts for $10. the reptiledepot charges $25 per 48 quarts (plus shipping?)!!! that sounds like a bad deal to me! about 4x what i pay.

did you try contacting landscapers or a garden supply? you can get this stuff pretty cheap if you can locate it. some will special order for you.

i used to pay $3.00 for 3 cubic feet of it at the local home depot (that's like a standard 2ftx3ftx6inch sized bag of mulch or soil that you would buy at home depot, lowes, etc.). NOW, i pay $10 and have to go 30 miles to get it!

i hope you can find a better deal than that, i thought i was getting scammed! thanks for sharing though, good luck.

Where do you live? Because every Home Despot or Lowes in America has cypress mulch in their garden dept for a buck a cubic foot. If you have to drive 30 miles just get some when you have to go there anyway.

I have cypress a foot deep in the Monister House where they spend most of their time. In some outdoor pens I have..... drum roll please.... Pine Nuggets! Why? The species I keep don't dig much, its outdoors, humid as hell and I can HOSE IT OFF!

i live in southeast pa. slightly nw of philadelphia. all the garden supply places (including every lowes, home depot, sears, k-mart, wal-mart, ace, etc.) around me quit carrying cypress about 2 maybe 3 years ago, nobody can tell me why either, they all had it and now none of them do. the closest place is in west chester, called mr mulch. i just looked at their prices, $7.00 a bag now, not horrible but still pretty far away.
mrmulchpa

Actually they don't Melissa. Cypress is easy to find in the south east, heck, it is 2 bucks a bag on every corner in Florida.

But the further west you go, the harder it is to find.

I have ONE spot in all of Colorado that I can find it. It is NOT stocked at any Home Depot or Wal Mart here. None. In California, it is basically impossible to find. It is a landscaping product, and out here, instead of hauling Cypress in, they use an alternative- Fir bark, lots of cedar, whatever, but no Cypress.

It is available here on the classifieds, but again, we aren't buying it for 2 bucks a bag. I wish!
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robyn@proexotics.com

ShipYourReptiles.com
Pro Exotics Reptiles

Some of the options we have used on 3 of the dwarf monitor species are recycled newspaper product yrs ago and wood pellets that are sold for woodburner fireplaces, out west they are made of aspen for animal use and sometimes hardwoods for burning, either or would work. Pine is bad choice due to the odor but with enough ventilation has never caused a problem with our helodermids however we never tried this on the dwarf monitors.
Good luck, Bob
Maxians Collection

What kind of monitor is that? It looks like a tiny Perentie.

Think it's a Kimmie? Very striking monitors.

Honestly, dirt is your best substrate for an albig,IMO.
But if you're covering a very large area, like the size of a whole room, I'd say go for the pine bark nuggets (I've been using them for months and my guys seem to like them) But, I use dirt/sand mix in their actual enclosure/nestbox, where I'm hoping my 'female'? will lay eggs eventually. This morning I caught her digging in the large pond liner I have 2' of mulch/dirt/sand in, so who knows?)

BTW- I find dirt/sand mix is by far, the easiest to clean up.