Coco Peat or not ?

[Pieter]

Still new to the hobby and with not very much options in my area i got a hold of a small block of coco peat. Ive used newspaper always but would like to change to coco husk/blocks , but is very expensive to ship to my location. So while visiting a nursery in a nearby town , i was suprised to find they have peat . We live in the Freestate ( South Africa ) and it tends to get very dry wit low humidity. The peat sorts out last mentioned with a more natural environment and as i understand keeps unwanted smells at bay. Its also fairly cheap.

I would just like to know if there are people on the forums using it and how they find it and if there is anything i should be looking out for , please.

[pretends2bnormal]

In general if you buy from a nursery, be prepared to treat it as if it has mites or bugs or fungus in it as precaution since it is entirely possible from there. Might only be wood mites, but better to not have any bugs than worry if the bugs you see are snake mites or ticks.

You can bake at low temp (like 200-250F) for an hour or so, or freeze for 1 or 2 weeks to kill that sort of thing and it should be safe after.

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[Pieter]

Thank you for the feedback . Can i freeze it in "block" form ? , and can i ask what's you're view on using peat ?

[pretends2bnormal]

I don't see why freezing as a block would be a problem; probably the better way to go for space. As long as the entire internal temp freezes or gets hot enough for long enough to kill any bugs or fungus in it, you should be good to use it.

If it is the kind of substrate available to you and the others available don't help humidity when you need it, I say go for it as long as you make sure to do the freeze or heat to kill off any potential bugs and stuff you don't want in your cage.

I don't see anything wrong with it as a substrate.

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[rufretic]

I have a breeder friend that uses all coco peat for his 100+ collection. He swears by it saying it holds humidity well, spot cleans easily and is softer, more comfortable vs the reptichip which is made of larger bulkier pieces of coco husk.

I personally prefer the reptichip simply because it has the same qualities other than soft but it is much less messy.

Imo both are great and the best two options for substrate.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I use it with smaller species (sand boas, honduran milksnakes, western hognose) however with larger animals such as an adult BP that will quickly turn into a muddy mess when they decide to urinate a large amount other issue is some will get stuck where you don't want it to be as their vent opens and closes and that can be an issue with some animals.

For adult BP I prefer Coco chip type bedding.

[Pieter]

Thanks everyone, this helped a lot.