Coco coir

[lindseyjordan10]

What can I mix in with my baby sulcatas coco coir substrate? I just don't like how sandy it is and it gets all inside his water dish.

 

[jjsull33]

Coco Coir shouldn't be too sandy, at least in my experience it isn't maybe you can look into a new brand? As for getting it in the water dish... that is almost inevitable, you could try surrounding his water dish with slate or live moss so he kind of has a "door mat" of sorts. You may be able to put a layer of some type of wood chip on top of the coco for the same purpose, but if he digs down he will get covered anyway and begin it all again.

 

[lindseyjordan10]

It's not necessarily him getting the sand in the water. Sometimes misting it gets it in there and just moving stuff around. If the coco coir isn't wet then it gets pretty sandy

---

Am i supposed to be dumping water on the coco coir?

 

[jjsull33]

Try looking for coco fibers then rather than coco coir, they are usually left longer and shouldn't have as many particles. Sometimes I split the coco with plain top soil, but it still gets everywhere, and I am trying peat moss now but I feel like it will have the same level of mess as the coco.

---

or possibly a type of bark, however I have no experience with the barks as substrates so I am not sure which ones are better or worse than any other.

 

[Tom]

Get it damp and hand pack it down. It becomes a somewhat solid, but sponge base and the particles stay to get her better. Still, its messy stuff.

I prefer orchid bark. I buy giant bags at the hardware stores for $4-5. Much less messy for a species that isn't going to burrow down into it anyway. I do use coco coir for my Russian hatchlings though. They burrow into it all day and night. My sulcata hatchlings do not burrow at all.

 

[lindseyjordan10]

Can I mix the orchid bark with the coco coir?