I haven't used the excavator clay, but would imagine that it may do what you want. I generally keep my leopard geckos on ceramic tile, but I do have one enclosure that uses bioactive soil. It's certainly more "compacted" than sand, but maybe not quite as hard as what they're used to in the wild. I used coco fiber mixed with a small amount (sorry, I didn't measure) of desert sand and then added some leaf litter from outside. Yes, I know that people get really worried about germs etc. from outside, but I wanted to include scavenger critters. The leaf litter holds down the coco fiber. I added some dermastid beetles that clean up the poop. The cage has been going for 2 or 3 years now with 2 retired female breeders and they are doing very well.
Aliza
