Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How often should i change my vermiculite out in my nesting/humid hides?
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ChaD
Contact Me

I do it once a month.

Well I usually change everything out when i clean my tank. I clean once every three to fours weeks or so(this doesn't include cleaning the excretion out every day)

Hope that helped a little bit=),
Eric W.
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4 great leo's(comin up on breeding hopefully by next year!)
0.1 normal(darla)
0.1 high yellow(dorry)
0.1 rainwater albino(floe)
0.1 blizzard (angel-she's crosseyed)

Hmmmm.... all I can say is that I stick mine in the microwave oven (damp) frequently to kill any 'bugs' that might be lurking in there, and just keep adding more as the amount decreases.
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

LOL...... Just kidding......LOL..... I would go with the microwave thing......LOL

and vermiculite as a incubation medium... marcia how long you nuke it for???/ i heard a while back the baking wood based productes caysed them to not retain moisture as well... i dont know if it is true or not...... gaboon, what do you use???
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-robin struck
Geckoheads And Geeks

Robin, vermiculite is not a wood product... it a mineral (hydrated Magnesium Aluminum Silicate). In theory, I suppose it could cause impaction... but I am not going to stick my neck out on a new debate on the subject. LOL! Personally, I have never heard of a case of impaction from vermiculite. I have occasionally seen a few very small flakes of vermiculite in the stools of my females... most likely what Sarah said as the reason. But, since they are not really ingesting it during feeding, and it is soft and absorbent, I would think the potential for impaction is extremely low.
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

that is exactly why I stopped using vermiculite in nest boxes, I found it in one of my girls poo- someone said she was probably licking the sides of the laybox drinking drops of water, which made sense to me. She did not get impacted, but it didn't seem like a good thing for her to be ingesting. Don't know if they ever do get impacted in the stuff, but I switched back to sphagnum moss after that, even though the vermiculite worked better as a laying medium in some respects- with the moss they often dig under it, then the egg sticks to the nest box sometimes.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Some vermiculite contains asbestos. I don't know what it can do to a gecko, but if it's in the verm. you use, it can't be good for the gecko.

Vermiculite expands when heated and/or when it comes in contact with moisture. I don't want anything in my geckos bellies that will expand. Many people worry about sand impacting their geckos - this stuff is chunkier than sand! And, many geckos spend the majority of thier time in their humid hides as well as licking around and on the sides for moisture. Not a good idea in my book.

Sphagnum moss (dirt-looking kind, not the green stuff) and shredded coco-husk products like Bed-A-Beast work great for humid hides/egg laying containers.
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Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Herptopia Reptiles
Email Me

Rob, there was only one mine in Montana where vermiculite was found in the same vicinity as asbestos. Here's a blurb from the EPA's study:

"Review of: Sampling and Analysis of Consumer Garden Products That Contain Vermiculite (EPA 744-R-00-010, August, 2000)

Conclusions:
With the exception of experiments performed using samples of Zonolite from Libby. Montana, the results of these EPA studies provide no scientific basis for the statement that currently available vermiculite products contain asbestos, or that use of these products present measurable cancer risks."

The full reference can be read in: "Review of: Sampling and Analysis of Consumer Garden Products That Contain Vermiculite (EPA 744-R-00-010, August, 2000)" by Dr. Eric Chatfield.
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com