Substrates

[priya]

hi , i was wondering if anybody could suggest what substrates i could use for my frogs and toads, i have 4 fire bellied toads which are kept on a terrestrial set up with a very large water bowl for swimming, 3 european green toads (bufo viridis). two whites tree frogs. 3 european tree frogs . a pacman frog and two lined fire salamanders

i am keeping the pacman and salamanders on a compressed brick which is soaked in water and looks like soil. but i am keeping all the others on ordhid bark, i dont like the orchid bark as when ever i put the crickets in they hide under the bark and the frogs and toads just end up with a bit of the bark in there mouths and not the cricket.

i tried the compressed brick stuff on my whites frogs but it just ended up sticking all over then and causing them distress so i went back to the orchid bark, i put the toads on the soil stuff and got told to take them of it as they like it drier however they were eating better on the soil and they managed to catch the crickets.

can anyone advise on the best substrates for all my amphibians?

[Kurt]

The brick is ground coconut shell, you can use it with all your amphibians or you could use sphagnum moss. ZooMed (I think) sells ground coconut shell loose, dried, and bagged, so you can try that. Or you can mix the two substrates together. The sphagnum moss helps to keepsthe coconut shell from being tracked all over the place.

[priya]

the brick i was using was call tropical terrain, and it is just like potting soil ans is really messy, i will look into the ground coconut. is it really fine? and if it is wont it just end up getting stuck to my whites again? i got told not to use spagmum moss as there is a danger of them eating it with the crickets and getting impacted.

[Kurt]

Tropical terrain is coconut shell. I have found mixing it with sphagnum cuts back on the amount of ground coconut shell that sticks to your frog. I also think mixing the two together make it less likely that your frog will swallow the sphagnum.

I have seen some of my amphibians eat sphagnum and they're ok. As long as its small amounts, they should be ok. I think that the threat of accidental ingestion of sphagnum is greatly exaggerated.

[SludgeMunkey]

For terrestrials and semi-terrestrials like my B. orientalis, I use a mix of coir, soil, and moss as the substrate. I then cover this over with sheet moss. For my B. nebulifer I use a 70/30 mix of coir to soil with a handful of sand thrown.

[1beataway]

What is coir?