Vermiculite & Perlite are toxic?

[For Goodness Snakes]

Whew! Thank you everyone for confirming what I believed. I couldn't imagine that hundreds of thousands of snakes that were incubated with verm were exposed to toxins. I just picked up my sack of vermiculite from home deopt the other day and was super bummed when I spoke with the guy at the reptile store. I thought I was going to have to change my incubation method completely.

A weight ratio of 1:1 vermiculite to water is what I was going to start out with and leave an open container of water in the incubator for humidity. This sounds okay right? From what I've read, it's pretty standard. I was thinking of incorporating the light diffusers/egg crate to keep the eggs off the vermiculite, but I'm not sure it's worth it or better...

Check out this video that I uploaded a few years ago on YouTube, if you follow it to the letter you should have no problems with incubating your clutches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-wjmsV9gMw

My incubators are bone dry (no open containers of water) I never have to add anything to the nest boxes during the incubation period. Remember it's not the humidity inside the incubator that should concern you, but the humidity inside the nest box that will determine whether the eggs desiccate / dimple too early.

If you are still unsure of what to do feel free to call me anytime at 408-981-6694, I'm always glad to help.

Brian Gundy / For Goodness Snakes