What substrate should you be using for your primitives?

[Porrhothele]

This is really great information. I wish there were more mygalomorph species available in the US. I am definitely going to try your substrate with the couple that I have and see how they do.

 

[Vermis]

Haven't visited AB in a while, and I see a new trend towards clay substrates. Interesting, but most mentions are kind of vague. This thread explains it nicely, and with excellent examples. Thank you!

I see alot of people question the use of wild substrates, but honestly I have never had any mold or parasite issues using wild clay. As long as the area you get it from is free of chemical pollutants, it should work fine. If you live somewhere that clay is basically impossible to access in the wild, you can use clay clumping kitty litter and do the same thing (soak it with filtered water to soften it, and slowly add dry peat moss and sand to it to add volume and dry it out to the right consistency).

Wild clay would be my first choice but 'free of chemical pollutants' might be tricky to find or determine off the top of my head. Clay cat litter is usually bentonite, the stuff some use for fossorial desert arachnids? Any thoughts on sepiolite? It looks like it's got similar properties for the same jobs, including cat litter. Difference being my workplace has masses of the stuff for oil and chemical spills, and wouldn't miss half a shoebox worth...

 

[RezonantVoid]

Haven't visited AB in a while, and I see a new trend towards clay substrates. Interesting, but most mentions are kind of vague. This thread explains it nicely, and with excellent examples. Thank you!



Wild clay would be my first choice but 'free of chemical pollutants' might be tricky to find or determine off the top of my head. Clay cat litter is usually bentonite, the stuff some use for fossorial desert arachnids? Any thoughts on sepiolite? It looks like it's got similar properties for the same jobs, including cat litter. Difference being my workplace has masses of the stuff for oil and chemical spills, and wouldn't miss half a shoebox worth...

Yep, I've heard alot of keepers down here have success with bentonite, so it's definitely stay to use. I find the biggest factor for happy primitives is not necessarily the mineral composition but the texture and malleability of their substrate. With enough prep, you can turn almost any type of clay into whatever consistency or level of crunbliness that you need it to be.

If your workplace has mountains of it there, 100% grab a large box of it for an enclosure or 2. Clay setups do not need maintaining or redoing anywhere near as much as traditional Coco setups, but it'd be handy to have some spare for future setups

 

[Myrlina]

So is any clumping cat litter safe to use? Or do you need to check for particular constituents? We do have clay soil here but it's likely to be contaminated with animal manure.

 

[RezonantVoid]

So is any clumping cat litter safe to use? Or do you need to check for particular constituents? We do have clay soil here but it's likely to be contaminated with animal manure.

I'd imagine any brand that can probably work as long as it says it's natural clay, I've never owned cats so Ive never had to use these products, but I image some may be scented to mask over the smell when cats use it, if there are any that have such additives I'd stay away from them.

Depending on how regularly animals have been walking over it, you may be able to dig down underneath the top layers and get more uncontaminated stuff