Redoing my Desert Hairy's Enclosure, need substrate advice.

[Roblicious]

I got this desert hairy about 2 months ago, and it has come to my attention that calcium is bad for them, well I did not know that until recently, so it has been in calcium sand all this time :/

At the moment it has calcium sand mixed with excavator clay, and its rock hard, I am even having a hard time digging through it, another reason why I want to redo the enclosure, if it wasnt for the premade tunnel I made, I dont think it would have been able to dig through.

At first I didnt worry, then I noticed it using his teeth to try to burrow and that sometimes small pieces of sand would get on the cricket as he was devouring it.

I read on here that if you wet and pack the sand down, it will hold, but here's the thing I have another layer of sand on top of the rock hard sand, it has been wetted and packed and it doesn't seem to stay put, it is very very soft and loose like it was out of the bag originally.

I cant seem to find any bentonite locally, but I did find some on ebay of all places, here is a 8oz bag, but it says its for wine treatment? I am guessing bentonite has a million different uses. there are not differnet types of bentonite right? Would hate to buy the wrong kind.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Bentonite-8-oz-bag-/110586696512?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19bf7b1340

Is it possible for me to use play sand from Lowes/Home Depot (what I should of done in the first place) mixed with DRIED or even slightly moist coco fiber substrate? Will that be enough to hold for a burrow if I pack it down and allow the moisture to subside? Or should I be using something else? Is there another type of clay I can get locally from lowes or a home depot? I do want my DH to be able to burrow and not have it cave in on it.

I am sort of on a budget as I have spent much on substrate on all of my terrarium, especially on this one and then come to find out I did it all wrong, stupid noob mistakes, but I still want it to look nice. Here is a pic of what my enclosure looks like right now.

Thanks for the advice ahead of time.

 

[cacoseraph]

i doubt calcium is bad for them as you are thinking

 

[Roblicious]

arent there several posts pertaining to calcium being bad for inverts? I know its bad for T's.

If it's just me being paranoid then I wont bother redoing my enclosure, save some bucks lol.

I dont see any sand 'sticking' to it, besides maybe some small small 'dust' specs.

 

[Chrome69]

Don't think its bad for them unless they ingest a bunch of it, like if they are fed mice all the time (from the bones). Though even that i'm not completely sure of, highly doubt having calcium sand would have any bad effects on your scorp.

 

[Roblicious]

Yeah thats what I figured, cause in the wild I am sure they wil get a LITTLE bit of calcium and some of the environment probably has some calcium deposits that their prey gets on or even consumes from time to time.

I just got worried because I saw him using his teeth to burrow through that rock hard substrate mixture I got him in and that the crickets get some specs of sand on them while he is consuming them (no I dont lace the crickets with that powder crap, just those orange fluker cubes).

 

[AzJohn]

The problem is probably more what happens when Calcisand gets wet.

 

[Roblicious]

Which never happens as I do keep it 100% dry, no water bowl or misting of the walls, nothing.

When I put a water bowl in there, he walked up to it looked at it and then kicked all this sand on it and walked away, hes done this twice in the past, each time I placed a bowl in there he would do the same thing, then I read that people dont even give it water and that it gets it all from the crickets or prey, so I stopped offering it water entirely.

EDIT:

I am going to the beach in a little bit, might as well grab some sand while I am there, what temp should I bake it at and for how long?

 

[Michiel]

200 Celsius for an hour or two......

 

[Roblicious]

Thanks
Beach sand ok? Seeing how there are so many types of sand out there lol

 

[AzJohn]

Which never happens as I do keep it 100% dry, no water bowl or misting of the walls, nothing.

When I put a water bowl in there, he walked up to it looked at it and then kicked all this sand on it and walked away, hes done this twice in the past, each time I placed a bowl in there he would do the same thing, then I read that people dont even give it water and that it gets it all from the crickets or prey, so I stopped offering it water entirely.

EDIT:

I am going to the beach in a little bit, might as well grab some sand while I am there, what temp should I bake it at and for how long?

I live in Arizona and have collected this species in the wild. They need water. The environment is not like the Sahara. It has seasonal rains and at some points in the year the ground in which they live is damp for weeks at a time. Also the species lives in deep borrows that are usualy much more humid than the surface. I feel that most of the problems this species has in molting occur when the tank is kept to dry. If your's is an adult it might be able to survive.

Beach sand will work, make sure it's been rinsed well in order to get any salts out. I use a mixture of play sand and clay. I get it wet then dry it out, it will hold a borrow real well.

 

[Roblicious]

I live in Arizona and have collected this species in the wild. They need water. The environment is not like the Sahara. It has seasonal rains and at some points in the year the ground in which they live is damp for weeks at a time. Also the species lives in deep borrows that are usualy much more humid than the surface. I feel that most of the problems this species has in molting occur when the tank is kept to dry. If your's is an adult it might be able to survive.

Beach sand will work, make sure it's been rinsed well in order to get any salts out. I use a mixture of play sand and clay. I get it wet then dry it out, it will hold a borrow real well.

Yeah I tried the mix with exc clay and it made it rock hard so I am steering away from that.

I guess I can put a thing of water in the corner every other week for a night or 2. If it ignores it, ill take it out after a few days then try again in a few weeks, kinda like food I guess, if it doesnt eat it within 24-48 hours remove it.

The sand I will get is by a river, prolly limited amounts of salt in it right? Sorry not too familiar with the 'ecolog'y of things lol

Can I just boil it for a few minutes instead of baking for an hour or 2? Same thing right?

EDIt: I am pretty sure mine is an adult

 

[Kaos]

Here's a description of the substrate i use for desert scorpions. Also i would have twice as much substrate as in the tank pictured.

 

[Roblicious]

I figured since I made a burrow/tunnel and gave him a hide it would be fine, its too hard for him to dig through it anyways.

I think in the near future Ill order a thing of bentonite online, how many oz should I use for a 5gal tank? And Ill get a thing of play sand from home depot, though I would love black sand, but that stuff is so expensive. If I get play sand do I have to wash it? Or can I just mix it with some coco fiber and bentonite and goto town?

 

[Giantsfan24]

Best substrate for almost any burrower(except humid lovers like Emperors) is a mix of peat moss and sand. Mix about 50/50 and really wet it down. Not sopping wet but really damp, so it holds a form if you sqeeze it in your hand. Leave it out in the sun for a day. Once it dries, it's pretty sturdy, and they love to burrow in it.

However, unlike burrowing T.s which make one burrow then live in it, Scorps tend to make alot of burrows, sometime destroying ones already made.

 

[Roblicious]

yeah I noticed that, Ive been mixing sand and coco fiber prolly 75/25 and its been doin good for my dune scorpion and he tunnels all the time.

next trip to the river I am gonna grab a ton of sand again.

 

[Sooner]

I use 2/5 excavator clay, 2/5 aquarium sand, and 1/5 peat moss with great success. I wet this mix and let it dry for about a week in the terrarium.

It becomes hard but not hard enough to where it's impossible to dig. The peat moss holds some moisture and it makes it a bit more pliable.

I never believed that this species should be kept 100% dry, I've been through the deserts and I've seen it pour! I usually dump a 1/2 cup of water on the opposite side of the burrow every month or so for most of the year. During the winter months, I keep it relatively dry.

 

[Roblicious]

I offer mine a small water dish once a month for a few nights thats about it