Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am starting a colony of Discoids, and need advice on the proper substrate. Right now I just have the small amount of soil that was packaged with them when I purchased them, and a few layers of cork bark for cover. I have some unfertilized potting soil that I was going to use, but I noticed there was perlite in it. I've been looking around online trying to find out whether or not it was okay to still use, but everything I find contradicts what the other is saying. Half the people say that perlite is perfectly safe, and the other half say not to use it. The only thing is that everyone who says, "Don't use perlite" never back it up with a reason to not use it. And my soil mixture has so little perlite in it I can't see why it would hurt. I thought you guys here would know best though. So please let me know what would be best.
Thank you.

I have no idea what the debate is over perlite or vermiculite in the soil because we don't use soil.

To be quite candid, we use coco fiber bedding - the kind that you buy in a brick. You can keep it slightly moist, and our discoids love it! We use egg flats for insect furniture.

In the past we also tried red bran (but it molds); birdseed (it sprouts with water), and aspen chips (not shredded). The aspen isn't too bad - but difficult to get the babies out of.

Hope that helps some,

I to like the bed-a-beast because it holds moisture well. Another good substrate is peat moss.
James
www.blaberus.com

I also use the bed-a-beast. Both the roaches and I love it. Don't care much for the peat moss though, it's so freaking dusty. If it gets dry, I cough up that stuff for days.

Pine chips are good. Peat moss is good too, but keep in mind it molds over time.