Has any one tried...

[Dean W]

I'm having some difficuly deciding on the substrate for my rosea. She seems to dislike dirt greatly, and will do anything to stay off of it. I was wondering if any of you have had success with the reptile turf they carry in stores?

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Use peat or peat/vermiculite mix.

Jon

 

[Dean W]

well, im using sterile soil, and vermiculite mix, in ration 2-1 soil to verm. And she still dont liek it. I worry about peat, harbours stow-aways better.

 

[wuk88]

I use 100% peat moss in my rosies cage. I just microwave the peat for a little bit to get rid of anything in there and then I let it cool and put it in the cage.

 

[Immortal_sin]

I use peat, or peat/verm for all of mine. They hate it at first, in fact, one I used to have lived on a kitchen towel. She would NOT move off of it so I could remove it. So I just left it there, since the substrate was dry, no mold problems. She loved her towel

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Hi Dean,

I've successfully kept and bred this species on peat/potting soil/sand mix, mostly peat with some of the rest mixed in. They seemed to enjoy it, digging deep burrows in it. If she doesn't care for the dirt, you could even leave that out. Most of my keeps dislike vermiculite, for whatever reason.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[crash769]

I use the red reptile barks that are about the size of a quarter for my rosie. He really seems to like it and even made a burrow to hide in under his log.

 

[chid]

I use forest bed and vermiculite for my Rosie, no probs with it.
Chid

 

[conipto]

I've got mine on bed-a-beast mixed with some 'jungle mix' crap. It never molds, and holds a 7 inch deep burrow pretty well.

Bill

 

[Dean W]

thanks guys, i'll take all your suggestions into consideration, when re-deciding on substrate.

 

[luther]

I recently cleaned out my rosea's tank and replaced the substrate with a few inches of bone dry forest bed covered with a scattering of bark chips. I've never tried bone dry substrate before and I'm being very cautious. I'm hoping that this will help her to break out of the 5 month hunger strike and recognise it's summer. She has the standard water dish in case of emergency, although I've never seen any of my Ts use one. She seems quite happy so far and hasn't climbed the walls at all.

Funny species. 5 months after stopping eating and she's as healthy looking and fit as she ever was. I wish she'd start eating again though. It's wierd.

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Luther,

Do you know if your G. rosea was wild caught? Just curious. In Argentina/Chile it's been cooling off (kind of the opposite to here weather wise) so her biological clock might still be set to south american time!

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Buspirone]

Maybe your keeping your substrate too damp. My rosie hates to walk on anything unless it is dry. You could try Cactus and Succulent potting mix. I just got some and like it so far. Its 28% -38% reed sedge peat, sphagnum peat moss, perlite and washed sand.

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Originally posted by Buspirone
Maybe your keeping your substrate too damp. My rosie hates to walk on anything unless it is dry. You could try Cactus and Succulent potting mix. I just got some and like it so far. Its 28% -38% reed sedge peat, sphagnum peat moss, perlite and washed sand.

Hi Buspirone,

Just curious, can you feel the perlite in the substrate? I've heard from sources that the perlite can slice up an exoskeleton over time. I don't know myself if this is accurate or not, but I figured I would pass that on so you can look into it (unless you've already heard and found it untrue)

Best wishes,

Paul

 

[Mendi]

I tend to keep my adults on dry peat with the only moist area around the water dish, but then most of my grown Ts are desert species, Slings and juvs get a 60/40% mix of peat and vermiculite.
I pretty much use straight vermiculite as a floor in my arboreals as it holds moisture, and they never walk on it anyways, they prefer their corkbark walls.The only trouble I've had with mine avoiding the substrate was when it is too damp for them...

 

[Buspirone]

Originally posted by phoenixxavierre
Hi Buspirone,

Just curious, can you feel the perlite in the substrate? I've heard from sources that the perlite can slice up an exoskeleton over time. I don't know myself if this is accurate or not, but I figured I would pass that on so you can look into it (unless you've already heard and found it untrue)

Best wishes,

Paul

The list of ingrediants I listed are right off the bag in that order. In a cup of the succulent mix I've only seen 2 pieces of perlite.....it is a very small amount of the mix. There is more perlite in a potting soil mix than I've seen in this stuff. I've heard the same thing about perlite. In the quanity that thats there I don't see it as being a problem. As much perlite as I've seen it could be picked out in a couple minutes without trouble if the concern is that high.

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Originally posted by Buspirone
The list of ingrediants I listed are right off the bag in that order. In a cup of the succulent mix I've only seen 2 pieces of perlite.....it is a very small amount of the mix. There is more perlite in a potting soil mix than I've seen in this stuff. I've heard the same thing about perlite. In the quanity that thats there I don't see it as being a problem. As much perlite as I've seen it could be picked out in a couple minutes without trouble if the concern is that high.

Thanks, Buspirone,

I was wondering about that!

Best wishes,

Paul

 

[AllenG]

my G.rosea needs DRY substrate...when I would spray down one side of the cage he would NEVER go over there...he stayed on his log for the longest time, then in one corner he put down a thick web flooring...well since he never left that corner i stopped spraying the cage, now the substrate is dry and he moves all around....he still of course has a water bowl with rocks in it to provide the necessary moisture, and the rocks stop crickets from drowning...

 

[Dean W]

phoenixxavierre, im not sure where u ehard thatperlite is the little white balls thta look like styrofoam, commonly found in potting soil. Im pretty sure its safe.

 

[JDS]

I currently use peat/vermiculite mix but find my G. rosea doesn't like it much. She spends most of her time on top of the half flower pot hide away. When the peat is dry it is difficult to lay down webbing, with the peat building up on her spinnerets. I have been thinking of going back to Reptile Litter which worked well for her in the past and was easy to clean the dropping clumps out. Seems to me to be a good choice for desert species.