Anyone have experience with this stuff? I know you can shape it, or you animal can burrow it, then it hardens. But does it disintegrate? Or is it pretty stable. I just heard once they dry out, they flake away alot and make a huge mess. Not sure if that happens.
Excavator clay
- Thread starter tyrant963
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2004
- Messages
- 409
Ive used it before. If you make it thick enough it is very stable. It will not come apart unless you get it wet.
I use it with my Uro. Great stuff since I can build all these cliffs and stuff as well as bury hollow decorations so he can't cram himself up into them. What I do though is mix a 70/30 split with sand and it makes it easier to work with.
suicidepill
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2007
- Messages
- 10
Yeah man excavater is so cool its almost as cool as calcisand because the bag claims its great, and petstores are not tryinng to just make some $$$ selling those GREAT products of theirs so that reptiles do enjoy, them. i mean come on dont do with a dirt sand mix because thats just plain taking a risk right there, i mean ive never heard of a retpile being on dirt! especially a skink, aspen? or clay stuff, for a skink? HaHa grEat! now lets not give it a nice high basking spot, because if that happens then the little lizard might be all warm and bite, but if you give it a cool nice basking spot then it will be too cold and therfore it wont bite! now lets not talk about letting a skink meet with another lizard, because we dont want our lizards being lon;ey, and what on earth would a lizard do without its little tea party with a beardie? im clueless as to what it woulod do acually.......
anyone know of a lobster roach breeder i could order from? i wanna give them a try. Thanks.
anyone know of a lobster roach breeder i could order from? i wanna give them a try. Thanks.
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2002
- Messages
- 4,341
I get it. All pet shops and commercial products = bad. All home-made stuff = good. Rubbish.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm the first to bypass the off-the-shelf solution if I feel it is inadequate or if I can do something cheaper/better myself. I am also the first to acknowledge many pet stores are criminal in their practices and that even the best often need to make compromises. Just as there are good stores, however, there are some good products out there and this happens to be one. I spent a lot of time over the years, as have others, trying to get the perfect mix to create something like this. As it happens, I now live in a county made primarily of clay and all of my clay substrates can be mixed starting with the dirt in my backyard. Even so, a lot of the customers at the pet store where I work (yes, I work at a pet store .. guess that means I don't know anything, right?) would prefer to use something out of a bag so that they don't need to get themselves a shovel (not that you can really dig up dirt right now anyhow ... a couple months still until the ground thaws). To be fair, it also reduces the chance of spontaneous vegetation, inverts or other bits of nature (something I relish, but many do not) and is already the proper mix ... vs having to mess about with clay content vs sand.
Rant aside, I do find this product quite useful. Right now I have a desert hairy (Hadrurus arizonensis) set up in this in the store. It isn't the ideal setup in that there have been some compromises made for visibility, but it does have a nice burrow up at the front so it can be seen and another which is long but straight and angled so that a bit of light gets in for viewing. Compared to the standard pet store setup (loose calcisand), I think it is a pretty good one and the scorpion seems to be in good health and exhibiting natural behaviours. He has even done a bit of excavating himself, though I did not cut it with sand and as a result there is only so much digging to be done.
Cheers,
Dave
suicidepill
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2007
- Messages
- 10
You make an excellant point there dave.
Also, i never said anything about all petstore employees being uninformed about the real care of reptiles. i know there are some knowledgable ones out there.
Oh yeah, i was being so sarcastic because i know tyrant in real life.
Also, i never said anything about all petstore employees being uninformed about the real care of reptiles. i know there are some knowledgable ones out there.
Oh yeah, i was being so sarcastic because i know tyrant in real life.
I work in a pet store as well. I would never recommend anything I haven't tried myself. My uro loves the stuff because it holds up as he burrows. If you want to let your leopard gecko or your uromastyx or any other terrestrial lizard burrow then this clay substrate is good stuff. Dave eloquently made my point already. :}