Excavator clay for Leos?

[Shijadi]

I was wondering if anyone would share their two cents on using excavator clay as a substrate and building material for a terrarium environment.

I'm trying to go for a naturalistic approach to my new 40gal I plan to have my two female leos live together in. I've seen some of the stuff that people have made using excavator clay for their setups and the results are very impressive!

What are your thoughts? Any hazards I should be aware of?

Pros and Cons appreciated!

 

[kholtme]

I have never used it, but ive heard one person say it turned their gecko orange. That was only one person though. If you dont let it dry for 24 hours before introducing your geckos they can dig it up and make their own borrows, so if you want it a certain way make sure it stays dry, or you could let them make their own home, if they even dig in it.

I dont know if it is a dangerous substrate or not for leopard geckos. I like the idea of it and that it is pretty easy to mold, but I dont know much else.

 

[LEOPARD1]

Try Lugartis Natural Reptile Bedding. If you can find it.

 

[Tongue Flicker]

If the ex clay stains your gecko it means it hasn't dried enough well yet for use. I'm using laterite (a kind of clay soil) on one of my leos and in the past i accidentally put water in it causing it stain my gecko brick-red due to the smudge it made lol.

 

[kholtme]

How well does exclay transfer heat? Do people have problems getting the warm side warm enough, assuming its not to thick. I think i remember reading somewhere sand doesnt heat that well from underneath. I wonder in exclay would have that problem? I like the idea of it and would be fun to build a leo home out of it, but that pretty much means you need a 2nd tank on hand to let it dry completely and in case your water bowl spills or something, you would need to have a back up tank IMO

 

[majahawt]

How well does exclay transfer heat? Do people have problems getting the warm side warm enough, assuming its not to thick. I think i remember reading somewhere sand doesnt heat that well from underneath. I wonder in exclay would have that problem? I like the idea of it and would be fun to build a leo home out of it, but that pretty much means you need a 2nd tank on hand to let it dry completely and in case your water bowl spills or something, you would need to have a back up tank IMO

Excavator is pretty cool and fun! You're not supposed to use heat mats with it because it heats up too well which can lead to burns :/ I believe it's possible to use a heat lamp on it since it heats so well but I'm not entirely sure if I would risk it. I can do some trial runs on it to get a proper final answer once I move, which hopefully will be within a week or two. Otherwise, you could always have excavator on the cold side and just enough tile to cover the heat mat on the warm side :>

 

[Shijadi]

Excavator is pretty cool and fun! You're not supposed to use heat mats with it because it heats up too well which can lead to burns :/ I believe it's possible to use a heat lamp on it since it heats so well but I'm not entirely sure if I would risk it. I can do some trial runs on it to get a proper final answer once I move, which hopefully will be within a week or two. Otherwise, you could always have excavator on the cold side and just enough tile to cover the heat mat on the warm side :>

Yeah I heard about the heating problem, so what I planned to do is have the warm side lined with tile for the hides to sit on (building styrofoam/grout hides), then use the excavator clay as sort of a filler substrate for the rest of the tank, maybe a little extra on the warm side to fix the hides in place.

Also, no worries about spare tanks. I still have the two that my leos currently live in, so I will leave them there until I can get everything set up!

 

[majahawt]

Yeah I heard about the heating problem, so what I planned to do is have the warm side lined with tile for the hides to sit on (building styrofoam/grout hides), then use the excavator clay as sort of a filler substrate for the rest of the tank, maybe a little extra on the warm side to fix the hides in place.

Also, no worries about spare tanks. I still have the two that my leos currently live in, so I will leave them there until I can get everything set up!

That sounds great! I have a tiny bit of excavator on the cold sides and one of them loves it. The other one spends most of her time in her moist hide lol

 

[kholtme]

Just thinking out loud, but if you are using a thermostat, wouldnt that keep the excavator clay from getting to hot?

 

[majahawt]

Just thinking out loud, but if you are using a thermostat, wouldnt that keep the excavator clay from getting to hot?

I think the problem is that the Excavator holds the heat too well so by the time the heat gets through to the thermostat, it's already too warm so you'll end up with too cold/too hot temps. IDK but Zoo Med themselves say not to use it with heat mats so :/

 

[kholtme]

I think the problem is that the Excavator holds the heat too well so by the time the heat gets through to the thermostat, it's already too warm so you'll end up with too cold/too hot temps. IDK but Zoo Med themselves say not to use it with heat mats so :/

I see what you are saying there. Makes sense know, thanks! It is a cool product, even though ive never used it.

 

[Shijadi]

What I might do then is to go ahead and set it up, then maybe monitor the temperatures for a few days to see if the heat reaches any extremes. Then I can decide if it's safe for my Leos before I move them in.

Like I said, I am not planing to use the clay directly on the area that the heat pad will cover, so maybe there is a silver lining there.

 

[majahawt]

I've talked to some people that use Excavator recently and apparently it does heat up sufficiently with a CHE. I guess it's because it holds so much heat that it's possible to provide belly heat with an overhead heat source

 

[kholtme]

Even under a hide? Because from my understanding you want the ground temp inside the warm dry hide to be the hottest area. With what you say being true, it probably wouldnt be that hard to regulate the ground temps buy only having a che and using that with a thermostat with the probe on the ground. But would the air temp be too hot then?

 

[majahawt]

Even under a hide? Because from my understanding you want the ground temp inside the warm dry hide to be the hottest area. With what you say being true, it probably wouldnt be that hard to regulate the ground temps buy only having a che and using that with a thermostat with the probe on the ground. But would the air temp be too hot then?

I'm not sure if the entire clay heats up enough to keep it warm under a hide :/ Also air temps might be a problem, yes. I think I'd just stick to the old "only on the cold side" myself, just to be safe :3

 

[World of Herps]

heat mats are fine as long as you use a rheostat