Sandy soil.

[Greg'sGarters]

I am rather confused Richard, so am I to assume this means we know better than the animals about what they need or prefer, so we should take away control from them and force the animal to live in a fashion that is what we feel is best for them??

Just because it is found in nature doesn't mean that it is best for them. Humans had to go for thousands of years, living in a cave or shelter, no clothes, during the winter time. But if I stripped you naked and threw you outside you wouldn't be too happy . But now we keep our houses at a comfortable temperature all year round.

[infernalis]

Not all hazards are obvious.

Like the garter snake of mine that died because it swallowed a hunk of carefresh that subsequently absorbed liquid and swelled up inside.

but it's just so pretty, I like purple substrate... so it has to be good.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Wouldn't it get tricky if you start adding plants directly to the substrate? You're going to need to water them and soggy soil sounds like it would be a big headache if you accidentally overwater. I think the hardest thing is mimicking the natural balance of an ecosystem in a small enclosure.

I wonder if it would help if you plant the pots and hide them in the substrate. Maybe that would give you more control when it comes to watering and cleaning?

I'm only going to put the arid adapted plants and grasses in the substrate so shouldn't cause problems. The ones that require more watering or have delicate roots will be in trays and pots.

[Greg'sGarters]

Like the garter snake of mine that died because it swallowed a hunk of carefresh that subsequently absorbed liquid and swelled up inside.

but it's just so pretty, I like purple substrate... so it has to be good.

I don't like care fresh a lot. I use it for my brumation boxes, because it absorbs humidity very well and they don't eat so there is no worry about them ingesting it. But I don't use it for my breeding tanks. Newspaper pellets are less likely to stick to food, easier to spot clean, are easier for the snake to remove, and lets face it - they are cheaper.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Just because it is found in nature doesn't mean that it is best for them. Humans had to go for thousands of years, living in a cave or shelter, no clothes, during the winter time. But if I stripped you naked and threw you outside you wouldn't be too happy . But now we keep our houses at a comfortable temperature all year round.

Some aspects found in nature work in vivariums if implemented correctly
E.g In the wild aerobic bacteria brake down organic material. Bioactive substrates use those bacteria to brake down animal waist-resulting in a low maintainance and odorless viv.

[Greg'sGarters]

Some aspects found in nature work in vivariums if implemented correctly
E.g In the wild aerobic bacteria brake down organic material. Bioactive substrates use those bacteria to brake down animal waist-resulting in a low maintainance and odorless viv.

I agree 100%! I'm not saying that nature is a horrible, terrible, tortuous thing. I'm saying that nature isn't PERFECT. For example, with the Moorish Idol, very few, if not nobody has been able to successfully breed them in captivity. Scientists don't know why they never live out their full life span in captivity. However, their populations are just fine in nature. So yes, there are some things that only can be found in nature, but there are also some things that are meant to contain/restrict the population. Some of the bloodlines in captivity that are going around are weak, but through natural selection in nature, the strongest, healthiest and fastest are the ones that survive to adulthood. But here in captivity, we don't just go around saying, "Hey that snake is slower than the rest of them, lets kill it!".

[ConcinusMan]

Like the garter snake of mine that died because it swallowed a hunk of carefresh that subsequently absorbed liquid and swelled up inside.

So don't feed them in their enclosures. I think it's highly unlikely that a snake would purposely swallow it unless it smelled like food or got stuck to food. And like I said, some substrates just work, some are better than others. If you must feed them in their enclosures then obviously in that situation you would want to use something that is less hazardous or harmless if swallowed.

In all fairness, nature doesn't provide optimal conditions, animals just adapt to the existing ones. All we learn from the natural conditions, is that they won't kill garters faster than the garters can reproduce. In fact, under natural conditions, garters are killed as fast as they can reproduce.
To use a more radical example of people knowing better: We don't brumate our animals under conditions that kill half of them each year.

I'm glad you answered that. You said exactly what I think, only you say it better than I could.