Substrate

I'm planning on getting Ackies in a year or so. Everywhere says to dig dirt from a pesticide free yard but my yard gets sprayed. Could use store bought dirt from Home Depot? Like gardening soil? What about Eco earth/plantation soil from the pet store? Any other alternatives?


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ask any relatives if they have woods or anything like that that you could dig some dirt up at. Even if it means paying them. Dirt you get yourself will almost always be better than store bought.

If you must purchase dirt, your best bet is to go to Lowe's home Depot etc. And get a lot of top soil and play sand. Make sure there are no chemicals etc in them either. Organic topsoil. Get about 3 or so bags of topsoil for 1 bag of sand (assuming they're the same size bag).

Run/strain all the dirt and sand through a screen (egg crate works great for me) before using it. Mix the dirt very well too (most often the dirt you get from lowes/home Depot will have lots of clay.)

I have had to buy topsoil from Lowes and Home Depot before as well because my yard has been sprayed. At HD they have EcoEarth Topsoil that is organic, no fertalizers, etc. However like Daniel.Michelle said make sure you sift it because I have found pieces of plastic, glass, and other objects in there. Along with the playsand I also get a bag of organic peat moss and mix it in. Depending on where you live you can also find companies that generally sell landscaping rocks and they will sell screened topsoil by the truck bed load which for me was worth it because I have multiple cages.

You can go to a landscaping suppler and ask for whats known as a Sandy Loam.
If thats not an option a mix of playsand and coco peat works.
Keep in mind, what ever path you choose Ackies prefer very poor soils without any organic matter.

Heres a few pics to give you a visual on what the type of dirt you want looks like.http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...core/006-2.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps53e06d82.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...pse6b881cb.jpg
Sandy, rocky xeric dirt with a good amount of finer particles to hold moisture.

What you do not want is any dark, earthy soil like this
http://www.themulchdepot.com/images/topsoil.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by slayer

What you do not want is any dark, earthy soil like this
http://www.themulchdepot.com/images/topsoil.jpg

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That's what I would have used had this not been posted!
Thanks for the substrate help guys. Do you think you can answer another question? So a lot of people use feeding troughs as enclosures. I would try to go bigger than the minimum 4' but would it be ok to use a plastic one? I've seen people use plastic rather than metal but will it last?



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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Citrus

That's what I would have used had this not been posted!
Thanks for the substrate help guys. Do you think you can answer another question? So a lot of people use feeding troughs as enclosures. I would try to go bigger than the minimum 4' but would it be ok to use a plastic one? I've seen people use plastic rather than metal but will it last?



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I have never used a trough as a cage, but I would think it would depend on the quality of the plastic, thickness, etc.

I am currently using this 300 gallon water trough for the burrowing for my savannah monitor breeding pair. It's been almost a year and it has almost no scratches even with them clawing at it. I love it. Idk how well/efficient it would work for Ackles however.

[IMG]http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/...psv1tnkk8j.jpg[/IMG] Mine. I'm currently building the rest of the enclosure on top of this. When done it will be 10×6×6 ish.

[IMG]http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/...psnz1b9drw.jpg[/IMG] just the trough.

Plastic trough work well as a stand alone enclosure or as a base to build up on. Keep inmind that crickets can climb the plastic which they cant do in metal troughs
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...DSC05473-1.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps5zgtjuca.jpg