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Burrowing substrate

rcarichter

rcarichter

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I need some opinions on substrate. This will be for shield-tail agamas, which are small, desert, burrowers. I've tried the Excavator stuff, but when it starts to dry, they aren't strong enough to dig it. They don't really care to use pre-made burrows. They want to dig, dig, dig. Right now, I'm using a combination of sterilized topsoil and sand, but I have to keep it too wet in order for it to hold its shape. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Noelle
 
The Zoo Med Excavator substrate was kind of tricky for us at first, and we sat down with our areas ZM rep, and he suggested that we use a more water to substrate ratio, and mist the substrate daily or every other day. And that seemed to help, and I was pretty happy with it, so that may be something you can try. Ive also used a very moist peatmoss and sand mixture and that worked pretty good to. Hope this somewhat helps get the thought process going!
 
last summer I fostered a vole I found in my workplace that got stranded above ground when it froze. These are small creatures that are similar to moles live in underground tunnels eating bugs. For him/her I used eco-earth and it worked perfectly. It was just like natural soil and held his tunnels just fine. I only needed to moisten the soil once every 2-3 days. Maximus lived for 4 months in a 20 gallon tank filled 3/4 of the way with eco-earth, a half log and piece of drift wood on top, and lived off of crickets, superworms, and earthworms. He was released at the base of a tree after the spring thaw. Considering it worked for our little burrower, I would no doubt recommend it to any other creature that requires the ability to burrow and tunnel.
 
Thanks! I just got a few more of these guys, and therefore a few more tanks, and I haven't been happy enough w/ Excavator to spend all that money on it. I'll give the eco earth a try. I hadn't tried making it that deep.

BTW-I had a mole in my care for a while; very similar situation. It got caught on the neighbor's frozen pool cover. Sweetest little creature ever. We see a few voles around here, but mostly moles.

Noelle
 
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