Savannah - which substrate??

[Solid Snake]

this morning i had Sand on the hot side and aspen on the cool side, when i came back from work, ASPEN all over! heh learned the hard way, these guys like to dig.

anywho, what kind of substrate do u guys use?

[ReptiZone]

My monitor is on a 50%eco earth and 50% reptibark and it is 6 inches deep for my baby nile I would sujest the same for you.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Holy smokes, this has been covered a million times.

Dirt. Dirt. Dirty dirty dirt. I feel sorry for your lizard for being on sand. Sand is glass you know? Sand is for the beach, not for monitor cages. Give the damn lizard something it can use to still remain a tiny remnant of a monitor.

Go here and read:

http://www.varanus.net/faq/

[SHvar]

You would never wish any other trash and recycled crap on them. Ive switched substrates over many years, and tried top soil from a home improvement ware house (junk), then did what I wanted to for a while switched to creek bank dirt (strained), dirt from the forest nearby(strained), with a small percentage of fine grain sand and 12-15 trips, and days of work later its 1.5ft deep in my large albigs cage. I use the same dirt with my ackie, my smaller albig, and my fiacees bearded dragon, they all love it and use it most importantly. Monitors need dirt for many reasons, a place to hide, source of humidity, and you can see it in them a source of something normal. Sand is for beaches, glass, etc, not for monitors, after all if you research where any monitors come from you will see that even V.griseus lives in a dirt sand mixture. Bosc monitors are a semi arid grassland monitor that lives in farmers fields to eat crickets and other voracious insects, sand dries them out, doesnt hold a burrow, and drains all water straight through it.

[Steeve B]

here you go! also do a forum search! you will find all you need on this site!
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15401&highlight=dirt

[pookye]

i keep my sav on aspen bedding only.

[Jeff_Favelle]

i keep my sav on aspen bedding only.

Poor sav. :(

[V.hb]

pookye i suggest if you want a healthy sav, you should throw that aspen out and dig up dirt. its not like it costs anything, its all free! so theres no excuse not to use it.