Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I asked my neighbor is I could use a soil/ sand/ peat shpagnum mix for a substrate in my Gaboons planted vivarium. he said no sand because in the wild the snae does not encounter it. That didn't make sense to me but what do you guys think?

Snakes don't encounter newspaper in the wild and yet they do just fine on that too....

>>I asked my neighbor is I could use a soil/ sand/ peat shpagnum mix for a substrate in my Gaboons planted vivarium. he said no sand because in the wild the snae does not encounter it. That didn't make sense to me but what do you guys think?
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

What I wanted to accomplish was a natural setting for my animal, like a little chunk of an African rainforest in my 4' diamter 2' deep horse trough. I was going to use a mix of 2/3 clean soil and 1/3 equal mix of sand and peat sphagnum and maybe 2" or so of gravel on the bottom for better drainage. Then many different kinds of live plants would be maintained inside the environment. Also, I heard of throwing a dozen or so worms in the soil to help reduce waste organisms and clean the soil, does that help?

Sounds like a good plan. Worms could work but even more importantly, aerating the mix once a week to keep the microbes healthy will be the critical component. You can do this simply but just raking through the mix real well. I would also add a deep layer of oak leaves of something like that.

>>What I wanted to accomplish was a natural setting for my animal, like a little chunk of an African rainforest in my 4' diamter 2' deep horse trough. I was going to use a mix of 2/3 clean soil and 1/3 equal mix of sand and peat sphagnum and maybe 2" or so of gravel on the bottom for better drainage. Then many different kinds of live plants would be maintained inside the environment. Also, I heard of throwing a dozen or so worms in the soil to help reduce waste organisms and clean the soil, does that help?
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL