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Vermiculite discontinued?

C

Cornylover2

New member
I came home today to find that my "male" had laid eggs. I remember putting my 2 snakes together a couple of months ago while I was cleaning cages, so it was a very big surprise. I've been running all over town and both Home Depot and Lowe's is telling me that vermiculite is discontinue and they don't carry any sphagnum moss either. What are my solutions here? I currently have the eggs in deli cups with moist papertowels covering them, but time is running short here. Most stores close in about an hour and I don't know what to do.
 
I would stay away from Perlite. Most breeders don't like it for corn eggs. Look for sphagnum moss in the orchid section of your local nursery or even any store that has garden supplies. I always find it at any of my local Walmarts.
 
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Susan said:
I would stay away from Perlite. Most breeders don't like it for corn eggs. Look for sphagnum moss in the orchid section of your local nursery or even any store that has garden supplies. I always find it at any of my local Walmarts.
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Actually Don S mixes perlite with vermiculite because he was never able to consistently get vermic coarse enough.

Plenty of folks actually use perlite as an incubating medium, and personally I'd rather use it over moss. I am NOT a fan of moss at all. Perlite and vermic are minerals and do not harbor bacteria, however moss can and does. You also can run into that problem of phorid flies with the moss.

Paper towels will work---there are breeders who just use paper towels. But you should be able to find perlite or vermic---try some of the smaller gardening shops.
 
sphagnum moss is a great medium I like it beter than vermiculite. you can get it at home depot. I have but the bages are smaller this year . If you cant find it there then go to the your local nursery as Susan has told you
 
Joejr14 said:
Actually Don S mixes perlite with vermiculite because he was never able to consistently get vermic coarse enough.
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Maybe I'm confusing the 2 products...it has been over 8 years since I had to incubate any chameleon eggs. All I remember is that one of them was just so darn fine that I hated it. I could never get the moisture level correct with the stuff and it stuck to everything. I felt horrible watching the baby chameleons try to get it off their eyes. And the other stuff wasn't much better, which is why I use the moss now. And you get phorid flies just by living in Florida. You don't need to have eggs incubating in sphagnum moss to get them.
 
I use perlite exclusively and not had a problem. It doesn't stick to eggs like vermiculite does so it can't drown the eggs. It also has natural anti-fungal properties to it. Stephen suggested it as it's all he uses and he's not had a moldy egg yet. I'll keep using it as long as I can get it. I use damp moss to cover the tops of anything sticking out of the perlite.
 
where do you get your perilite from? I was told by Erin Williams I could pick up small backs of vermic from Bi-Mart for a few $, but I went to bi-mart and fred meyer's and they didn't have any vermic, but did have bags of perilite and sphagnum moss ....
 
I got the perlite at a local nursery supply. I used to get it at home depot, but now all they have is stuff with fertilizer in it :(
 
okay .. originally i was thinking of mixing vermic and perilite after reading various threads about why people like each type of substrate ... but now it seems like it'll just depend on what i can get my hands on.

its good to know that i can just get the stuff locally and not have to order it online & pay shipping. especially since i want to minimize my costs because i don't know if I will be getting eggs or not ... I'm really hoping, but we'll see. the pair in question are 2yr olds ... i weighed them before trying and both were over 300g, female was about 375g and is still at about 350g now ... so figured I'd see if they're receptive, and if not brumate them for next breeding season :D
 
I like to wait until they are three years old, regardless of weight. I think they'll be more ready, and will produce eggs longer if they aren't bred too early.
 
MegF. said:
I like to wait until they are three years old, regardless of weight. I think they'll be more ready, and will produce eggs longer if they aren't bred too early.
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If you read the first post you will see that they bred the snakes by accident
 
I didn't remember that. They were just talking about the fact that the snakes were 2 and over 300 grams as if they were planning to breed. Too many threads going at once!
 
i checked home depot and all they had were HUGE bags of perilite ... so it looks like I will be using perilite ... what is the water/perilite ratio you use? someone had posted that they found when using vermic that putting the vermic in a ziplock bag and then slowly increasing the amount of water and mixing it was less messy and came out with a good consistency ... would this work with the perilite too?
 
You don't have to be that precise with perlite. It does not hold water per se. It gets damp, but won't get wet. It sheds the excess water off. I just put in enough water that when I sqeeze a clump it stays loosely together. Any time during the incubation that you think it needs more water, you just pour a little in at the edges and it will go to the bottom.
 
Hatchrite

tbrent1 said:
This stuff is works great for beardies not sure about corn eggs anyone ever used it?
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Hatchrite appears to be a mix of pre-moistened perlite & moisture retaining crystals--there are no ingredients listed on the bag. I haven't used it myself but most of the reports I've heard from corn snake breeders who have say that it does work very well (though some preferred plain perlite).
 
Cornylover2: If you haven't already found the bedding you needed. If you have a Sutherland's store near you, they should carry both perlite & vermiculite (without additives). And I bought sphagnum moss at Lowe's near the pots (in gardening section). LOL
 
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