aft burrowing and substrate

[HepCatMoe]

people have been suggesting that i change my substrate from peat moss to slate.

benefits of peat moss: holds moisture, is soft, looks nice (very natural with the live plants) and my aft loves to burrow in it.

con: danger of impaction?

benefits of slate: easily cleaned, looks nice, definately no impaction.

con: no burrowing!!

since burrowing is one of the few behaviors my aft actually exhibits i feel kinda bad switching to slate.

has anybody ever heard of impaction from peat moss? its ground pretty fine, and its not hard like bark or sand, its very soft, so i imagine its digestible.

heres a pic: http://www.westcreekfarms.com/Images/pmhands.jpg

also, if i do switch to slate can anybody think of a way to allow my gecko to burrow while avoiding risk of impaction?

maybe do slate for most of the tank, with a little section at one end that is peat moss?

 

[sportbike_rob]

people have been suggesting that i change my substrate from peat moss to slate.

benefits of peat moss: holds moisture, is soft, looks nice (very natural with the live plants) and my aft loves to burrow in it.

con: danger of impaction?

benefits of slate: easily cleaned, looks nice, definately no impaction.

con: no burrowing!!

since burrowing is one of the few behaviors my aft actually exhibits i feel kinda bad switching to slate.

has anybody ever heard of impaction from peat moss? its ground pretty fine, and its not hard like bark or sand, its very soft, so i imagine its digestible.

heres a pic: http://www.westcreekfarms.com/Images/pmhands.jpg

also, if i do switch to slate can anybody think of a way to allow my gecko to burrow while avoiding risk of impaction?

maybe do slate for most of the tank, with a little section at one end that is peat moss?

my AFT ate moss once, it didnt poo for a few days and when it finally did, there was quite a bit of moss in it, i wouldnt use it, try coco fiber.

 

[HepCatMoe]

was it peat moss or sphagnum moss? did it look like the stuff in my link?

 

[Stitch]

I was using this type of moss in a moist hide for humidity.

I had a young leo, about 2-3 months old, it died from being impacted with the moss. I have 2 nephews that use the same moss and their leos have never had a problem. But their leos are ADULTS.

If your AFT is more then 6-7 months old then here's what I suggest. Use the slate tile for the entire cages substrate. Then you could place moss in the hides for your AFT to dig. The thing is you do not want to use the lose substrate for flooring because chances are the gecko will be hunting down it's food in the open space. By only having it in the hide, it will help reduce this risk.

 

[ReptileMan27]

I use coco fiber(bed a beast) for my AFT. Never had any problems with it, he loves it, likes to dig plus helps with hummidity. I feed my AFT with plastic feeding tongs so he never accidently eats the substrate but even if he did swallow a little bit, I dont think it would cause any harm, most likely pass right threw.

 

[Stitch]

Any type of lose substrate should not be used as a substrate. With such a small digestive track it may not break down. Jason you admit that you feed with tongs and that if you didn't he'd probably ingest some. We do not know how well B-A-B breaks down, so I would assume that it'd be just as dangerous as sand. No reason to risk the life of the gecko. As I mentioned use the lose substrate in hides only, this will lower the chance of impaction occuring.

 

[ReptileMan27]

Any type of lose substrate should not be used as a substrate. With such a small digestive track it may not break down. Jason you admit that you feed with tongs and that if you didn't he'd probably ingest some. We do not know how well B-A-B breaks down, so I would assume that it'd be just as dangerous as sand. No reason to risk the life of the gecko. As I mentioned use the lose substrate in hides only, this will lower the chance of impaction occuring.

I see what your saying and feel the same way about not risking the geckos life. I never heard of any substrate debates or anything with AFTs, plus been using the coco fiber for over a year without probs. If you really feel its a danger, I will remove it.

 

[Stitch]

Jason, how I feel about substrates is just my opinion, no one has to listen to what I say. In my opinion lose substrates can cause just as much problems with AFT's as they do Leo's. If you are feeding with tongs and the AFT doesn't ingest the substrate then you are fine. I don't usually hand feed, so I stick with the safest substrate, paper towels.

 

[goReptiles]

most definately agree... i stick with paper towels and slate. not really a risk taker when it comes to my animals.

 

[HepCatMoe]

its cool, ive made the descision to switch to slate.

 

[HepCatMoe]

i was recently talking to somebody about the switch from naturalistic to paper towels, and i thought it was a pretty good endorsement for paper towels, so here it is:

i used to keep my fatties in a naturalist setup, with peat moss and bark and plants etc. it looked really awesome and i got a lot of compliments on it.

but, i recently switched over (after 6 years) to just using paper towels. i actually like it a lot better.

when i was doing it naturalistic, it was really a pain in the ***, to try and catch all the crickets after each feeding, becuase there was so many places for them to hide (cricks have no problem burrowing in moss and bark). also, it was a major process to clean the cage, and so i didnt do it nearly as often as i do with paper towels (although i bet the plants in the cage hepled keep it clean and break down waste).

also, becuase the crickets were impossible to catch i would just leave them in there. becuase the geckos had food available all the time, they wood only eat at night when i was asleep and so i never got to see my fatties eat. in order to gutload my cricks that had escaped into the cage i used to leave crick food in the cage and hope the cricks would be full of food when the fatties ate em.


now that i have them on paper towel i can see exactly how much they eat. and i clean it twice a week, cuz all i have to do is put down new paper towels. and im pretty sure they are eating lots more, cuz i am able to see them eat every cricket. plus now i know every crick they eat is gutloaded and dusted.

before one fattie would probably eat a dozen cricks in three weeks.

now each fattie eats at least 5 every two days. thats almost three times as much!