More natural bedding

[Derek1]

Currently using Aspen and have no issues, but I would like to move to a more natural bedding. Some of the bioactive beddings I read are a 60/40 mix of organic soil and play sand. Would this be an acceptable bedding? Or any other ideas.

[Minkness]

Wish I could answer this more fully, but what I'm trying is eco earth, but letting it dry completely out first so that there's not too much moisture or mold. Someone suggested baking it in the oven which I may also do...just not when the person I live with is around lol

I'm going to keep sanichips as a back up though.

[Derek1]

I've read the soil/sand mix hold borrow/tunnels really well. But most of that was one corn and other snake threads. Not sure how well it hold tunnels when it's completely dry and in low humidity.

[Minkness]

I wasn't considering burrows, just a simple substrate for now. Cool idea though =)

[Bandit]

I like using a mix of repti-bark and soil. I'll usually throw some leaves and a little bit of moss on top too.

[Minkness]

I love reptibark! I may use that when my baby gets older, but for now too small for those big peices lol

I may do that for my aft though. She's on pure eco right now and I'm not terribly fond of the pure 'dirt' look lol

[Derek1]

I am looking for like a beige color soil to mix with the sand. I am wanting to make a desert looking enclosure.

[millertime89]

I would make your own and get soil and eco earth and mix those.

[SteelPanther]

This thread is about what I wanted to post about(hoggie substrates), so I'll just write it here:

So, there are a lot of conflicting information about hoggie keeping around the internet. What I heard and read from the internet, dig-able substrates such as ecoearth were the best recommendation. So did the opinion from a lady at the reptile store.
My hoggie regurgitated today from overeating (nothing related to the substrate I hope). and I had my question time with my vet.
and he said he would never recommend dusty natural substrate such as coco and ecoearth and he only recommends astroturf or newspapers as bedding for hognoses, since they can engulf it while eating and the particles can go into their system and cause a problem or two. He said he would allow it only if it's fine and clean dirt from your backyard, or orchid bark. He told me to change his coco substrate into something like newspaper.

So dig-able or non dig-able substrate? this is just genuinely confusing, so many different information here and there. and honestly my hoggie loves to dig around. I just don't want to take the joy of digging from him.

[Derek1]

I think he's talking about going Bio-Active. My Hog loves to dig too, it's natural to them. 60/40 soil to sand mix should work good. I'm trying to find a beige color soil to do a desert setup for mine. I put my Garter on a 60/40 Bio last week and she seems to love it. Putting my Cal King on a 60/40 mix this weekend. Then I'm about to buy some Springtails and really get this party rockin.

[Pirarucu]

Panther, as long as the animal is healthy, it will not have problems with impaction. Impaction is almost always a symptom of a much bigger problem, usually dehydration or being underheated.