Quote Originally Posted by Skiploder View Post
This is something we can discuss through PM or private email. The process can be daunting, but in reality it's fairly easy.

There has been a lot written on "recipes" for bioactive substrate but I kinda stumbled on a formula by accident. Where I work there is slide material that has a high amount of natural DG and top soil mixed in with some sandy loam. Once dried and spread it makes a wonderful bioactive substrate medium. during the winter, we stockpile this stuff (it comes from a National Park) in our staging area and I literally have access to thousands of cubic yards of it.

I was using it in my monitor enclosures because it is perfect for many of the odataria species. After awhile I noticed that I had a ton of isopods in the enclosures. I actually use these to seed additional set ups.

This substrate is self cleaning...the isopods and other organisms rapidly break down waste.

After you find a suitable substrate, the next trick is researching the natural environment of your children. As J pointed out, there are numerous resources you can draw on to give you ideas. Do they utilize burrows? Do they use rock formations? Do they climb? Do they drink from puddled water or from accumulated moisture? What temps have they been observed basking at? Do they seem to benefit from UV light at all? Are they nocturnal, diurnal or crepuscular?

Find those answers out for yourself. If they utilize burrows, a terra cota pot buried in the bioactive substrate will do a great job of wicking water from the soil and making a nice humid burrow. If they utilize rock ledges, you can buy some nice ones made of foam from several sources....the options are endless and the results are...as others have attested to....rewarding.

As J related, PVC enclosures are nice because they not only hold humidity and temps better, but also their dimension tend to work better for reptile species.

At some point I'm going to put my current clelia rustica naturalistic build up..from start to finish. Again, if you have any questions regarding the process, feel free to PM me.
do you have PVC tank set up for your naturalistic build?
i remember ppl would use PVC piping for Iguana tanks but haven't actually seen a PVC snake set up yet, will google search some..

also i had my thermometer set to the wrong setting so it was reading my living room temp instead of inside the tub so i switched that over.. Humidity is showing 40% and my ambient is 73F.. have the TSTAT set to 91.5F.. maybe i made too many air holes (back side has two rows 3/4 across the top of the tub and front side has 3 rows of holes all the way across using a soldering iron)