clay

[latshki]

where i live (PEI) we have red dirt and it is more of a clay than dirt so it packs incredibly hard and a lot of the time you can not differ from rock or dirt as we have sand stone that is red and you can only tell from the texture
so me being the one who likes to go all out with tanks, could I use it
I feel rather confidant that it would pack rock hard in a few hours from the heat and if he were to lick it I could only picture him having some red poo as I have personally eaten the dirt here a few times while biking and it goes down and out rather good lol (I dont eat dirt on a regular basis I just crash and get a good mouthful)
but I know that this dirt where I live is quite the same as in afghan as my cousin served there and said most parts are just like at home

so do you think I could and i would put a lot of rocks to lessen the chance of impaction even more

 

[Wind Dancer]

i would think about what and how you're going to remove it if you ever want it out. also the cleaning aspect is something you might want to think about.
i have heard of people using a mixture of clay and sand with rocks over it, mostly on the geckos-unlimited forum, so maybe spend some quality time with the search engine over there

sorry i don't have any concrete answers, just more questions, lol:main_rolleyes:!

 

[latshki]

wow there are a lot of people on geckos unlimited that swear by snad/clay mixtures I think i may try it and will check his pooh for any substrate

 

[Wind Dancer]

cool, glad i could help! there goes the 'i-wasted-my-time-looking-at-all-those-posts-since-i-decided-not-to-use-that' feeling.
post pictures when you're done:main_yes:?

 

[latshki]

I will and I plan on making it pretty sweet and hope he enjoyss it as he is super active and I believe has some form of gecko ADHD

 

[Wind Dancer]

gecko ADHD?! what prompted this diagnosis:main_laugh:?

 

[latshki]

well the fact that he does not stop moving, and when he does its to sleep and eat

also I found some pictures of the habitat in pakistan and found out it ranges from sand dunes - dense jungle

 

[Wind Dancer]

oh, that might do it.....bet he's fun to watch!
cool! i like the look of the first pic, i'm thinking of doing something with a gray, rocky kind of look and eco-earth, which kinda looks like the first picture!

 

[ajveachster]

One suggestion is to maybe bake the dirt if you are going to use stuff from the yard. That way you can hopefully kill parasites that may be in it. It done it with soil before 500 degree F oven for 30 minutes.

 

[latshki]

yea i baked it at 400 for about an hour

 

[Khrysty]

Just a precautionary thought: your digestive system is a lot bigger than a gecko's. Meaning, if you ingest clay/dirt YOU aren't going to become impacted. Your gecko still might. Keep an eye out for impaction symptoms and, if the substrate starts to get dusty, for respiratory infection

 

[Holly12]

Yeah I keep an eye on your gecko to make sure that he does not become impacted cuz as we all know that can be very dangerous to your gecko he will die from impaction so just watch him and you should be okay.

 

[latshki]

well i believe that impaction is a secondary effect and as long as its not pure sand and the animal is healthy and being well taken care of then impaction should not be a problem
but yes I am checking his pooh for any signs of dirt or dust and so far two poops no dirt

and i do NOT want to start the whole impaction thing there are still way to many threads for it

 

[Khrysty]

well i believe that impaction is a secondary effect and as long as its not pure sand and the animal is healthy and being well taken care of then impaction should not be a problem
but yes I am checking his pooh for any signs of dirt or dust and so far two poops no dirt

and i do NOT want to start the whole impaction thing there are still way to many threads for it

There are a lot of threads about it for a reason, though, Layton. I don't want to start a big thing, here, either I simply wanted to make sure you were aware of the dangers--and of what to look for. Impaction wouldn't necessarily show in the stool--all that would show is that it was passing through the system--the opposite of impaction actually.

If your leo was impacted, there wouldn't be any fecal matter at all (once it got so bad that impaction was a real problem) and it wouldn't eat much or at all.

If you want to use clay, that's cool, no one's judging. Most leo keepers in Europe do it so it must be okay.

I'd worry more about an RI than impaction with clay, anyway, but as I said, just watch the dust levels and even that should be okay.

 

[latshki]

thank you and I love the look but I may just switch back to tile because he seems unsure about it although he seems to love the rocks and the fact he can dig so I may just put tile in and section off a part and put the clay and put a few live plants I will post pics because it does look quite good