Hey William, Glad to. I found the best thing that works for me is to
standardize how much water to use by weight for the specific container.
You will have to go by trial and error to work out what works best for
the containers you use and your ambient humidity.
For leopards, I use the 38oz 6.75 x 2.5" clear containers with
pre-punched airholes at the top (www.superiorenterprise.com) . I fill
the perlite to just a bit below where the airholes are. This plastic
container weighs about 30grams with the lid. I add water, by pouring it
in evenly throughout the medium until I hit 250g, which would also
include six leopard eggs, which fit nicely in the container like this.
If you have less eggs the the container should weigh less, for a couple
eggs as much as 10g. What you don't want to do is to concentrate water
in any one place because the eggs will absorb too much water. I also
bury the eggs about 90% with just a section of top showing.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hello Julie. I am interested in switching to perlite. Can you pass that
information along to me, please?
William
Quoting Julie Bergman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
Hey Nathan! Such a quandry eh? I use either vermiculite (can get from
Orchard or Home Depot in big bags) or perlite to incubate my gex. For
leopards I use perlite pretty much exclusively. If you decide to try
perlite let me know and I will pass along how you use the stuff. It
works very differently than vermiculite because it is a rock type
material and not real absorbent.
Julie B.
Doug Johnston wrote:
Nathan...
I am still able to find fine vermiculite at my local Home Depot.
However, I have also been using Schultz Aquatic Soil
(http://www.schultz.com/proaqua.htm) for some of my larger gecko
species and for chameleons. I find it at Home Deport as well. It is
fine ceramic pieces that have been fired. It has lots of surface area
to help retain moisture. Usually, I rinse it very well (has lots of
dust), then let it drain for a while. I use a deeper substrate than I
do with vermiculite. The bottom stays pretty moist and the top is
drier. Seems to work very well for me. I first started looking at this
because one of our European friends mentioned they use seramis.
Seramis is not marketed in the US, but this stuff is the closest I've
found.
Nathan Hall wrote:
Well, I can no longer find any Schultz vermiculite (due to asbestos
scare I guess). I really liked using it as an incubation medium.
It's fine, and I've been using it for many years. What in the heck
should I do? All of the vermiculite that I've found tends to have
large granules, and I don't want to use it. I'm afraid to use
Perlite since I have no experience with it, old habits and all. What
do some of you guys use as an incubation medium. I'm willing to try
other things, but I'm a little worried since I simply don't know how
to "work" with other mediums. Any ideas? Any of you guys know if
Schultz discontinued this product.
I ask that you take the time to let me know what medium you like to
use and why. Please let me know medium to water ratio and other
specific details.
I'm tired of driving all over Houston to find the "perfect"
vermiculite. There has to be a better way.
Nathan Hall
GECKOS UNLIMITED
www.geckosunlimited.com <http://www.geckosunlimited.com>
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
713-775-5545
--
Doug Johnston
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scubadug
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