Reptile & Amphibian Forums

everybody says they use dirt as a substrate, do you get it from the wild or buy it, if you get it from the wild how do you clean it

You dont need to wash it.

It depends on what kind of monitor you have obviously, but in my experience you can buy dirt very cheaply from a nursery or even home depot. This is safer that soil from out doors because that might contain parrisites,fertilizer, ticks ect. It also appears, for a savanna at least, that monitors do well in a soil mixture made up of soil, and any of the following: peatmoss, very fine sand, rocks too large to swalllow, green tree moss and some types of bark, of kanaf. Regardless of the substrate you chose you sould feed your lizard in a seperate area or a food dish.

There is no need to feed a monitor in a separate area. They can eat dirt, rocks, sand, mulch and so on as long as they are healthy and well heated. The only monitors that have problems with these things are ones that are sick or too cold.