Desert hairy substrate mix

[Colin93]

So I bought my first desert hairy today which will arrive in the next couple of days, my issue is I have more than enough sand but I can not currently get hold of any excavator clay, but having always looked after forest scorpions I have tons of Coco fiber, I have heard you can mix the two for desert scorpions, will this work in a way that it will be able to burrow? Any advice from someone that has used this mix would be very appreciated

 

[ChristopherNguyen]

So I bought my first desert hairy today which will arrive in the next couple of days, my issue is I have more than enough sand but I can not currently get hold of any excavator clay, but having always looked after forest scorpions I have tons of Coco fiber, I have heard you can mix the two for desert scorpions, will this work in a way that it will be able to burrow? Any advice from someone that has used this mix would be very appreciated

No, straight sand. If you use peat, then the scorpion will 100% get mycosis. Think of where it came from. Desert hairy comes from places like Nevada, Utah & Arizona. You wouldnt find peat at all where they live, so they've evolved to live on sand.

Using peat can work for SOME desert scorpions because they come from semi-arid deserts. Whereas your scorpion lives in hyper-arid desert, with little to no rainfall.

In my opinion, you're good to go. Use all sand and DONT TOUCH THE EXCAVATOR CLAY. I know theres a trend for using excavator clay to "mold" the substrate, but this is really bad for your scorpion.

Why? Because desert scorpions are able to suck out the water & drink from the sand via osmosis. If you use clay, it's too dense, the scorpion won't be able to suck out the water and get hydrated. There's a scientific paper proving this.

 

[Ferrachi]

I would not use coco fiber... if you can wait for the excavator clay, I would wait

There's a lot of threads on sand / excavator mix in this forum... just do a search

 

[Colin93]

I would not use coco fiber... if you can wait for the excavator clay, I would wait

There's a lot of threads on sand / excavator mix in this forum... just do a search

So I got some excavator clay and made a sort of rock with a couple of small burrows started for it, now the other side of the tank I want to be a sort of desert area, can I just mix dry sand and dry excavator clay say 25% clay to 75% sand to make some thicker substrate that it will be able to dig without collapsing too easy? Don't really have time to wet the clay again and wait for it to dry before the scorpion arrives, so will a dry mix work for what I want?

 

[ScorpFreakKing666]

So I bought my first desert hairy today which will arrive in the next couple of days, my issue is I have more than enough sand but I can not currently get hold of any excavator clay, but having always looked after forest scorpions I have tons of Coco fiber, I have heard you can mix the two for desert scorpions, will this work in a way that it will be able to burrow? Any advice from someone that has used this mix would be very appreciated

Hey Colin93! When using excavator clay you want to mix it with sand! However if you obtain a different type of desert specie sometime down the road from the family Buthidae it is totally ok to mix play sand and coco fiber together as a substrate as long as the coco fiber is 100% dry. Some species in the Buthidae family that are ok with this type of substrate are Leiurus, Androctonus, Parabuthus, Hottentotta, (NOTE* These mentioned species are considered to be Medically Significant and they do pack a punch with there sting!*) and a few other that I cant seem to think of at the moment as I just woke up and have not had a cup of coffee yet. Anyway.... These species I have mentioned do not really burrow (But have been found to do so) but rather prefer to live underneath shallow ground litter, debris or rocks. Maybe these are the desert scorpions you could have heard of that can have substrate mixed together? But again not excavator clay and coco fiber or sand and coco fiber.

H.arizonensis needs to have strong burrow tunnels to prevent collapsing because this specie are mad digging machines and coco fiber just would not hold up as good as excavator clay.

Cheers.

 

[Colin93]

Hey Colin93! When using excavator clay you want to mix it with sand! However if you obtain a different type of desert specie sometime down the road from the family Buthidae it is totally ok to mix play sand and coco fiber together as a substrate as long as the coco fiber is 100% dry. Some species in the Buthidae family that are ok with this type of substrate are Leiurus, Androctonus, Parabuthus, Hottentotta, (NOTE* These mentioned species are considered to be Medically Significant and they do pack a punch with there sting!*) and a few other that I cant seem to think of at the moment as I just woke up and have not had a cup of coffee yet. Anyway.... These species I have mentioned do not really burrow (But have been found to do so) but rather prefer to live underneath shallow ground litter, debris or rocks. Maybe these are the desert scorpions you could have heard of that can have substrate mixed together? But again not excavator clay and coco fiber or sand and coco fiber.

H.arizonensis needs to have strong burrow tunnels to prevent collapsing because this specie are mad digging machines and coco fiber just would not hold up as good as excavator clay.

Cheers.

Thank you, I made a clay rock sort of thing taking up half my tank and started a couple of small burrows but that's just made of clay, and on the other side I am going to use a mix of sand and clay to make a deep desert area that should be thick enough to burrow in, I will pack it down well, when mixing the sand and clay for this I should not have to wet it should I? As the scorpion is arriving the same day as my new clay haha

 

[ScorpFreakKing666]

Thank you, I made a clay rock sort of thing taking up half my tank and started a couple of small burrows but that's just made of clay, and on the other side I am going to use a mix of sand and clay to make a deep desert area that should be thick enough to burrow in, I will pack it down well, when mixing the sand and clay for this I should not have to wet it should I? As the scorpion is arriving the same day as my new clay haha

If it is excavator clay then yes you will have to wet it and it will definitely take awhile to dry, make sure it is 100% dry before you put your scorp in the enclosure. As for the rock/clay side, it should be good as long as you make sure there is no way for it to collapse in any event. Not sure if you have previously or currently own desert hairys (other than the one we are discussing) but they dig non-stop for the most part and they will try to manipulate the rock area when they encounter it for sure. If your enclosure is not dry with the clay you will want to set your scorpion up in a temporary enclosure, Not sure what part of the world your in but most pet stores have cheap small enclosures or you can even just go get some tupperware and drill some holes in it, throw some dirt and a hide in it and your good to go for a few days.