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Live substrate

J

jaws

New member
First of all, merry Christmas!
Now for the question. Under the tree this morning was something I've never heard of before--something called Fluker's All Natural Substrate / Repta-Lawn Liner and Seeds. There's a mat and some grass seeds included. According to the instructions, you soak the mat with water, then scatter the grass seeds over it so that, in a few days, there's live grass on the bottom of the terranium. It requires full-spectrum lighting and fertilizer once a week. You can remove the mat to rinse if necessary. The grass is supposed to be edible (though I doubt Bogie will turn vegetarian) and "Perfect for most Reptiles and Amphibians."

Thoughts on this? I'm afraid it'll just turn into a festering swamp in the bottom of the tank, although it would be very cool if it worked. Has anyone tried this or had any experiences with it? A search on Google only turned up a bunch of pet supply store links. I'm a little apprehensive.
 
Never heard of it, but it sounds awesome. I hope somebody knows something, because if it works well, I would love that for my tank. It would be interesting to use and I think it would look great.
 
Well it's certainly better than the bed of maggots I visualized when I read the title of this thread...

I can't imagine it being easy to clean OR bacteria resistant, but it definitely sounds interesting. I'm going to do some searching. :)

Hmmmm....
 
Live substrate is very cool! but it requires a lot of time and effort. I found a great book on the subject:
"The Art of Keeping Snakes" by, Philippe de Vosjoli
I bought it @ www.VPI.com
:)
 
I would think it would involve more cost as well since it needs full spectrum lighting. How would you ever get rid of the poo? Wouldn't that be a bacteria nightmare?
 
I'd be interested to know what's in the fertiliser. Obviously it shouldn't be anything dangerous to reptiles, but I'm having trouble thinking of a chemical that would be safe.

I agree with the cleaning aspects as well - it's not like you could spot clean (unless you don't mind holes in the "lawn"!). Is there anything in the instructions that covers this?
 
JTGoff69 said:
I would think it would involve more cost as well since it needs full spectrum lighting. How would you ever get rid of the poo? Wouldn't that be a bacteria nightmare?
Click to expand...

Yes, you would need some type of full spectrum lighting, and it is important to know that there are good (beneficial bacteria) and bad bacteria most of the common bacteria are harmless if balanced, a very good example of this is the human GI system, another is yogurt. Bacteria in general is a fact of life! Didn't anyone take microbiology?? ;)
lol I guess most people would be horrified to see the stuff that normally grows on your arm
but to answer the question about the poop- you would scoop out as much as possible-just like you do with aspen or something similar, the rest would decompose much like mulch as you work with the biosubstrate
:)
 
The first thing I thought of is how tall does the grass grow? Wouldn't be much fun if it grew so tall that you can't find your "snake in the grass". (Sorry for the horrible pun, but it had to be said.)
 
Let me know how if this works!

I think it would be so cool for sweets tank. Since we just have the one snake I would love to try this.
 
I got some full-spectrum lighting under the tree as well :)

You can remove the mat to rinse at any time, according to the packaging, so I don't think the poo would be posing a serious health threat. Then again, I wouldn't want some to fall through the mat or something.

My biggest concerns right now are the humidity, the sanitation, and the toxicity of the fertilizer or grass. Everyone's said they'd like to see how this works and I'd like to try, but I don't want to risk the health of my snake for the sake of the experiment. Does anyone know if this has real potential to be harmful? Will too much humidity be a problem for the snake?

I could transfer Bogie to another (smaller) tank while the grass grows, then see how it works out in the tank to judge.

Thanks for the input!
 
If you had something else to grow it in and test it for humidity etc. before you put it in your viv, that would be great. Pain in the butt, but I'd hate to risk my snake either.
 
i'm really interested in this as well becasue i was thinking of using bambo shoots, in the water, those you can take out there doesn't need to be a root system, so cleanning isn't a issue with them
 
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