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Does anyone else use vermiculite in their hides? Is there any concern about impaction? I've noticed vermiculite in several of my gecko's feces- some minimal but other have quite a bit. I'm guessing this is from crickets entering the hide and the geckos capturing the insects, and some of the vermiculite there.
Anyone else notice this?

I have been using vermiculite in nestboxes and hideboxes for over a decade, without problems. I often notice vermiculite in feces after a female has laid eggs in a nestbox. I also use ground coconut husks when I'm out of vermiculite. I like to use fine grade vermiculite.

Nathan

Vermiculite is fine for adults. But I have stopped using it for incubation of geckos eggs. Grains tend to attach to the moist hatchling and are hence eaten with the skin from the hatching shed.
I had some cases of deadly impaction (I did some necropsies) due to ingested vermiculite.

Just my experiences

Ingo

Ingo,

I agree. I have lost a few neonates for this very reason, but I don't think that the question pertains to that. In my experience, vermiculite is a suitable substrate for nestboxes. I have hatched hundreds of geckos over the years, and have only lost 4 or 5 juveniles due to vermiculite impaction. I am a creature of habit and have tried using perlite and other incubation mediums/a, but I have found that, in my collection, I get the best results with vermiculite.

Nathan

Yes,
but since most hard shelled gecko eggs do not need much humidity in the substrate and do not want to be buried. I now just use some gravel as substrate for hard shelled eggs. The substrate does not need to be moist but its still easy to keep the humidity of the air up by adding some water to the box (which is seperated from the eggs by the layer of gravel).

Ci@o

Ingo

Ingo,

I guess that I assume too much. I ONLY incubate soft-shelled eggs on vermiculite. I incubate all of my hard-shelled eggs on dry sand. To keep the relative humidity high in the incubators, I place large open containers of water in each incubator. The humidity remains around 70-80%, which is adequate for all of the desert species that I work with.

Nathan

About 2 years ago my TOKAY had a horrible impaction and I used vermiculite. I had a very tough time with it, but eventually it resolved after changing the substrate and giving my TOKAY a diet high in fiber (crickets fed with bran fiber cereal). She had a bowel movement (actually I had to cut off the cricket heads and squeeze the guts out to get her to eat, then she would eat the body of the cricket reluctantly) afterwards and she's been okay.

I had no problems whatsoever with BED-A-BEAST, and I think is the ideal substrate. holds moisture well too

Madame JadeFox

I personally use bark since it is a natural antiseptic (thats why they use it in playgrounds) and holds moisture very well. I may be switching over the bed-a-beast as well though since bark looks very ugly and crickets get stuck under it and so forth.

You will have NO problems with bed-a-beast. It's awesome, but please just get brand name bed-a-beast ONLY. I purchased a cheap substitute and it stunk bad and I threw it out. Only Bed-A-Beast will do!

Madame JadeFox