Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK

I built my new Tank for my Sav to these specs... 6X4X4 and i want to use dirt for the substrate,I was told to bake the dirt for an hour before using in tank. Should i use outside dirt from home?? I will need to bake that much dirt(substrate would be two feet deep forgot to add extra foot for dirt so it would be 6X4X5)Any suggestion would be great

Scott

Ive never baked or sterilized the dirt, if the animal is healthy and living anything close to the way it should theres nothing in the dirt that will ever affect it. Thats alot of baking, I know I spent 12 days making trips digging, sifting, carrying, and dumping dirt in 2 of my cages, I just removed the big clumps and rocks.
Allow your animal to have an immune system and it works great, then you have to shoot them to stop them from being monitors.

Thanks for the info!!
I thought myself that it would be ok to just use the dirt but someone told me to bake it

You aren't serious are you ? With 2' of substrate in that size cage you are going to have over a yard and 1/2 of dirt. You must have one BIG oven and free gas.

>>OK
>>
>> I built my new Tank for my Sav to these specs... 6X4X4 and i want to use dirt for the substrate,I was told to bake the dirt for an hour before using in tank. Should i use outside dirt from home?? I will need to bake that much dirt(substrate would be two feet deep forgot to add extra foot for dirt so it would be 6X4X5)Any suggestion would be great
>>
>> Scott

One thing you can try is what I do for fire ants. I'll dig up the dirt, throw it in rubbermaid tubs, spray the tub with "Black Knight" with the dirt in it, put the lid on em and let it sit for a couple of hours. Then I'll take of the lid mix up the dirt a bit, then let it air out for another couple of hours. I think they pulled it off the market but if you can get your hands on a can, it goes a long way and works pretty well