Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[dan76]

I need to setup a couple of humid tubs for my adult female snakes to lay their eggs in. At the moment I have a tub half filled with damp vermiculite which they seem to love burrowing in. The problem is, it's really messy and I'm also a bit worried that the stuff will stick them (as it seems to stick to my hand when I'm mixing it up!).
Can anyone suggest a better substrate for me to use and a place to buy from?
Any advice would be great.

Cheers,

Danny

(Oh, and the snakes are my carpets and leucistic texas rats in case that makes any difference! )

[Scott W]

Hi Danny,

I used to use vermiculite, it is a little messy and they can get it all round their faces but I never actually had any problems from it, just make sure there is always fresh clean water available for them.

You could try moss if you wanted. All good reptile shops should be able to supply you.
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[sebae]

first of all, the fact that the vermiculite sticks to your hands is according to me quite normal
Make sure you boiled the vermiculite out in boiling watter before u use it for your egg laying box... at least that's what I did because vermiculite is used by ('fudge!' i don't know the word in english) florists i guess and sometimes can contain stuff that doesn't really belong in there for incubating eggs...

Next answer, if u don't like vermiculite, you can allways use damp spaghnum moss which works very good as well for incubating eggs... another thing you can use is filter waddings (if i say this correct) you know the white stuff they use in aquariums for filtering the watter... this is also soft and also works for egglaying and incubating...

I even heard people who used a damp bathroomtowel in their egglayingbox...

Hope i helped you out a bit with this one

Sebae
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No one who has not been followed by the murderous jaws of the viper can know its poison fangs.

[dan76]

I had thought about using moss but as I already had a big bag of vermiculite I thought I'd try that first. Now that I know it won't harm them, I'll probably carry on using it. They do seem to love burrowing in it as well, so I'd hate to spoil their fun!

Thanks for the quick replies!!

[Morbid]

You might also use Perlite.. Link to their site: http://www.perlite.net/

And by the way.. You do not need to boil Vermiculite, if you buy a bag at a garden-center..
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*** Miqe ***


Assumption is the Mother of all f***ups.

[Jackie]

We use damp sphagum moss as a laying box substrate and vermiculite as an incubation medium. They can still burrow in the moss.
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Best wishes, Jackie

3:4 Eublepharis macularius
1:0 Gekko gecko
3:4:1 R. auriculatus
1:3 R. ciliatus
1:1 R. chahoua
1:1 R. leachianus henkeli

[sebae]

[Morbid]