Substrate

[Garter_Gertie]

Here's another question. And please bear with me as I suffer from CRAFT and can't remember what some o'this stuff is called.

I want to do my substrate with a mixture ground English walnuts (for like sand), the reptile bark chips which are small and also the real bark chips which are big, and that Aspen white shredded stuff (to look like pieces of torn up tree).

I don't know my perportions yet. I'll have to figure that out. But I think, like make a "soil" mixture of the ground walnuts and small bark,then next ingredient would be the real bark chips, with the apen shredded stuff being the least.

Then I'd toss in a rocky area of small river stones (aquarium ones) and then larger rocks here and there.

What do you think?

[Garter_Gertie]

Oh! Forgot! Will be putting in some meadow grass in an area. It's stuff for rabbits to eat but looks all the world like chopped prairie.

[Zephyr]

I personally don't recommend the walnut, and all of that stuff will degrade into potting soil over time. Perhaps just go with the potting soil itself and a small layer of shredded hardwood mulch on top? :P
Also, if you're going economic then use newspaper or paper towel.

[Garter_Gertie]

Zeph, Not going economic. Going In-Living-Room-Looking-Like-Terrerium.

Potting soil. I could do that, but I'd still go with the two different sized bark and bits and pieces of the Aspen-whatever stuff.

[el lobo]

I like coconut husk, with birch logs and leaf litter.

[Garter_Gertie]

lobo, where do you get the leaf litter and how do you sterilize it?

[Zephyr]

lobo, where do you get the leaf litter and how do you sterilize it?

Grab some dead oak leaves. :P Don't use maple or any of that other junk. Oak works best for display. I "bake" mine for my roaches at around 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

**EDIT- Also for substrate, maybe reptibark with potting soil beneath. You could plant some ferns in there. I've found that garters in the wild like to hang out near wild rhubarb, so maybe you could plant one of those in there.

[el lobo]

Exactly. Definitely go with Oak. Nice and thick, looks good too! Pin Oak especialmente, pero White Oak and Red Oak look very nice!

[infernalis]

Be careful with potting soil, many contain chemical fertilizers.

Unwittingly, we used some once, our snake shed twice in 12 days!

The fertilizer was eating at it's skin

Gertie, Have a look at one of my cages, it is only an idea, look around on forum at all the wonderful pics of everyone else's cages, and then feel free to get as creative as you want, just chose your substrate wisely.

Just judging by how much love you have for these animals, I know that if you had a baby snake die on you, it would break your heart.

Be really careful not to cook your little pets either. With Garter snakes (NO "exotics, tropicals here) they will live longer in your refrigerator than a cage that is too hot inside it.

One of the reasons Garter snakes thrive in so many places, tolerance for temperature differences! Garters are the ONLY species of snake to be found in Alaska. (But never in equatorial regions)

[adamanteus]

I know I bring this up with boring regularity, and I know that no one else really likes it much.... but what about slate? Impervious, wipe-clean, non pest harbouring, non ingestable, natural looking, heat retaining.... blah, blah, blah