[bawner00]

hi there, what kind of substrate is the best for my enclosure, here in my state I can find reduced option:


-peat moss
-dry leaves
-bark
-moss


the enclosure is big, so I was planning to do a kind of landscape with a water fall, so i thought to put pet moss on the base of the terrarium, put some moss by the water fall and put some random leaves on top, i hope i've made myself clear, what do you all guys think?

[wyatt003]

I think that sounds good. The peat moss will hold a lot of humidity, which is good for a tokay. One thing that you almost have to have is some kind of false bottom or drainage layer. If you dont the soil will become to saturated and start to grow harmful bacteria, and smell. So you might want to do some kind of rocks or clay balls beneath the soil so the extra water has somewhere to go. If you have any more questions feel free to ask. Oh and show some pictures of the gecko and the enclosure that you think of working with. Also, check out Vivarium Forum . i got a lot of helpful information here that i used while building my cages.

[Riverside Reptiles]

I use peat in my tokay enclosure. I also have some pieces of slate, some plants, etc. Tokay don't tend to spend a lot of time on the ground. So they aren't real particular about the substrate.

[Sinosauropteryx]

To echo Ethan, I don't consider the substrate that much important either. Pepe spends most of his time on the glass terrarium walls anyway so I'm not really partial to what I use for substrate. I would use Eco-Earth cocofiber but that can get expensive and I would hav to change it anyway so I would want to use something cheaper that you would only need to cover the ground in. What I use is a few sheets of newspaper and a thin covering of reptibark on top. To keep the humidity up, I spray the whole terrarium thoroughly atleast once a day and let the newspaper soak up most of the water. Then, when the tank dries off, the newspaper releases all of that moisture and you get additional humidity. Of course you don't really need the newspaper but, after a while of just using reptibark, I found that the terrarium floor would start to flood from the excess water. The reptibark chips would start getting moldy and the droppings would liquify, making the terrarium smell. So I added newspaper to collect the excess water and decrease flooding.

[Saille]

I do the same thing, only with paper towel on the floor (super easy to clean) and no reptibark at all. I just mist them heavily in the evening.

[wyatt003]

But, he was talking about something with a waterfall and naturalistic appearance. He should have no problem at all with molding and other problems if he uses peat or coco, and a false bottom.

[Sinosauropteryx]

Well what's wrong with reptibark? As long as you find a way to collect the excess moisture and you cover that completely with the bark, you should have something that can handle the high level of moisture and look natural at the same time, all the while being a lot cheaper than a brick of Eco-Earth or a big bag of dried cocofiber. And bark was one of the options that bawner listed anyway, so...?

[cliff_f]

There is nothing wrong with reptibark, or eco-earth. They are much better then paper towels, newspaper, carpet. All that stuff is crap for any gecko. If your reptibark is getting moldy you are using WAY to much water to mist. Tokays cages can and do need to dry out in between misting. It is perfectly ok for the humidity to drop down to 50% in between mistings it will not hurt them at all.

[Sinosauropteryx]

Yeah OK. I thought I was misting too much. Thing is, it is difficult to keep a constant humidity with just reptibark. It is easier with Eco-Earth but then arboreal geckos don't dig so I end up seeing it as a waste. Maybe it wouldn't be if I didn't have to clean it as often. And if I didn't use so much of it. I guess Eco-Earth could work.

[cliff_f]

Put some spring tails in your eco earth and they will help with cleaning. Just stir the dirt up every once in a while.