Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking into buying a blackthroat monitor and I was looking over caresheets to see what should be used as substrate. Some of the sheets said I should use dirt from ouside. It also said that the bacteria in the dirt would help breakdown feces so a spot clean would be good enough for a cage clean. Couldn't the bacteria from the outside make the monitor sick? For my other monitors I always used the expanding dirt I buy at the petstore. Is that not good enough for burrowing?

I have never had anyproblems using "outside" dirt, as long as it doesnt come from an area that has some kind of chemical or pesticide problem, usually field dirt is good or the stuff you can get by the truck load from a landscaping company, and then mix in a little sand and you should be good to go. The bacteria can be somewhat helpful for the fact that the bacteria will break down fecal material reminants left over from spot cleaning, which makes for a much more arromatic environment for your blackthroat monitor and your house or wherever you may keep you animal. Blackthroats are awesome animals, adn are very personable if treated properly, i do not have any dog tame animals but i have animals that trust me, and i them to a degree, here is a picture of my male blackthroat monitor, he has various names right now my daughter is calling him scratches.

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"cant we all just get along?" rodney king.

You can really see the bulges at the base of his tail. I've been looking for examples while trying to sex my argus, and this is the first pic that I actually saw them. Nice Pic.
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hbailey

0.1 argus monitor