Natural Desert Viv

[NewHerp293]

I was just wondering if anyone had done a natural desert viv complete with all the bugs and bacteria needed to keep the whole thing clean? I would be doing it for a Rosy Boa, so deserts of the southwest US basically. What type of substrate, what type of bugs, how do you heat it correctly? Any thoughts?

[Pirarucu]

It's possible, but not as practical. In tropical environments, things break down very fast. In deserts, it can take a very long time. You can make it bioactive, but things won't break down nearly as fast as they would for a hot, humid cage.
Some people with desert setups use Blue Death-feigning beetles, which consume waste (and are native to the american southwest) although I'm not sure how effective they will be with snake feces, which contain less nutrients than those of other animals.

[NewHerp293]

Ahh i gotchya! That makes a lot of sense! For a natural looking but not bioactive enclosure how do you get proper heating through the sand/rock?

[Pirarucu]

I use heat bulbs for all of mine. Belly heat with thick substrate really doesn't work well, because it creates a temperature gradient running in a direction that is the exact opposite of what you would find in the wild, which their thermoregulatory instincts are designed around.
For example, desert animals generally go underground during the day to stay cool, (and seek higher humidity) and the deeper they go, the cooler it gets. With belly heat, deeper means warmer, and to stay cool would mean staying above ground or closer to the surface, which is the exact opposite of what their instinct tells them.

[jjhill001]

You can do a bioactive substrate in a desert vivarium I would think. But you just use regular dirt. Humidity of your soil can be relatively high and the top part of the soil can be dry. Very few reptiles live on actual sand. Its normally a sandy dirt. Either way you still want to spot clean feces even with a tropical setup. The bacteria in the soil is what breaks it down I think. There is a long post on this forum somewhere that makes mention of using bioactive substrate with bearded dragons which is another sandy specie.

[Pirarucu]

Yes, the goal would be to have the substrate moist at depth, but any fecal matter would be on top where it's dry, meaning it would take too long to break down. You can absolutely have a bioactive deserve viv, but it will require spot cleaning unless it is very large, since feces will be produced faster than they are broken down. The larger the area, the longer feces can take to break down without accumulating.

If I were setting up a bioactive cage for a rosy boa, I would use perhaps a 3/1 ratio of decomposed granite and loamy topsoil. Then add a handful of the beetles I mentioned and just spot clean what isn't taken care of.

[NewHerp293]

In thinking more about it, Ive decided i spend enough time cleaning and looking at the enclosure to make spot cleaning worth it and i think a desert bioactive would still be really cool for a rosy. Im gonna look up those beetles! And what type of heat bulbs do you use? On timers/thermostats/always on or what

[Pirarucu]

I use outdoor flood bulbs from the hardware store, anywhere from 45-75 watts. Then I just adjust the distance from the bulb to the substrate until I get the right temperatures. You could use a thermostat if you wanted, but honestly that's unnecessary with bulbs. I run most of mine at full power, but if for whatever reason you don't want to do that, just get a dimmer. A thermostat is overkill if you're using something other than belly heat.
I leave the lights on about 12 hours each day, a bit longer in the summer and a bit shorter in the winter.

[NewHerp293]

Do you have any pics? How do you adjust the distance to the substrate without risking the snake burning itself on the light?

[Pirarucu]

Raise or lower the substrate level. Pile dirt up higher if it's not high enough, take some away if it's too hot.

[jjhill001]

Yes, the goal would be to have the substrate moist at depth, but any fecal matter would be on top where it's dry, meaning it would take too long to break down. You can absolutely have a bioactive deserve viv, but it will require spot cleaning unless it is very large, since feces will be produced faster than they are broken down. The larger the area, the longer feces can take to break down without accumulating.

If I were setting up a bioactive cage for a rosy boa, I would use perhaps a 3/1 ratio of decomposed granite and loamy topsoil. Then add a handful of the beetles I mentioned and just spot clean what isn't taken care of.


In the book I read about this method they said that you basically just stir whatever you couldn't spot clean down into the deeper layer.