Substrates and Chippings

pascal2023

Avid Member
Since I have isopods/ wood lice I have leaves in the enclosure for them, I wondered is chippings or substrate would be good to keep up humidity ? any thoughts?
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You could use it but not as a top layer, as a top layer I use regular flower substrate with leaf litter on top. The chance they chase an isotop, strike for it and contract with a wood chip on their tongue is big. And wood chips will contribute in constipation. Normal flower substrate would be less concerning.
 
You could use it but not as a top layer, as a top layer I use regular flower substrate with leaf litter on top. The chance they chase an isotop, strike for it and contract with a wood chip on their tongue is big. And wood chips will contribute in constipation. Normal flower substrate would be less concerning.
Yes this is what I was wondering because they gave 2 sizes of wood chippings and I would’ve been paranoid that she’d eat it since she went through a weird phase for about a week of eating mud 🙃 I just wondered what you guys use but I’ll do my research anyway, not in a rush to buy anyway just a nice to have sorta thing
 
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I had wanted to give Arcadia substrates a try, but couldn’t find that they’re available here. Being in the UK you may be able to find them. https://www.arcadiareptile.com/earthpro/substrate/earthmix/
If you haven’t yet read it, this may be of some help to you. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/intro-to-bio-activity.242
We do have this and in my local pet store too, by the way I’d be more than happy to buy and ship some over to you skittles ! 🤎
 
Offer is always there! Im intrigued can I ask what you use, special mix sounds good lol
You’re so sweet. 🤗
I mixed together organic garden soil, play sand, coco coir, orchid bark, chopped up sphagnum moss, horticultural charcoal all in varied amounts. For my girls I made sure to use more sand and less coco coir & moss so their tunnels would have more integrity. Of course, the one and only time one lays eggs and she refused to use anything but her old plastic bin with play sand. 🤦‍♀️ My drainage layer is a couple of inches of clay balls. I use fabric root pouches to contain everything and excess drainage has never been a problem. Besides leaf litter, I’ve also given the isopods some cork bark pieces to hide under.
For mixing up your own soil, it would be really hard to do anything wrong. My first bioactive was for one of my leopard geckos and I paid a lot of money for a bag of special bioactive arid soil mix. The hard part is gaining enough confidence to trust that you can make your own and that it is essentially just dirt. Even after making all of my chams and leopard geckos bioactive, I still have some insecurity. The plants are growing very well and the clean up crew has multiplied nicely, so I must have done something okay. After about a year, the substrate in my chameleons enclosures is a nice rich loamy-type soil and I’ve seen a couple of little mushrooms sprout up. Now if only I could get ferns to stay alive, I’d say it’s all good.
 
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