Good burrowing substrate?

Does anyone here know a good recipe for a substrate that can hold burrows in an arid/semi-arid environment? It doesn't need to be able to support love plants just burrows. A while back I tried a 30 sand 70 Eco earth split that when it was moist held pretty well but when it dried out easily collapsed.

Originally Posted by LuckyStar

Does anyone here know a good recipe for a substrate that can hold burrows in an arid/semi-arid environment? It doesn't need to be able to support love plants just burrows. A while back I tried a 30 sand 70 Eco earth split that when it was moist held pretty well but when it dried out easily collapsed.

It's hard to find something that will hold up to burrows without getting dry and collapsing, of course unless you change it out or keep it damp. I had a Savannah monitor and when he was young I kept him in a 55 gallon aquarium. It was a 70/30 mix of dirt/wood chips and it help up nice. I had the aquarium almost half way full with the substrate, he would burrow down to the bottom. I had a heat lamp on the top right and a heating pad on the bottom right. It would dry out, but I would pull him out, let him roam around and I would mix up the substrate and add water. He would just dig it out again, I kinda felt it was good exercise for him to constantly have to keep burrowing. Hope this helps. Oh, almost forgot. I used top soil purchased from Lowe's and the wood chips were from a local saw mill - I put the wood chips in the oven for a bit to make sure there was no bugs etc.