Laying bin medium

[haukesherps]

What is the best stuff to use as a laying bin medium?

 

[jannb]

I use washed play sand. The kind you would use in a child's sand box.

You might find my egg laying/laying bin blog helpful and Dez's video about setting up a laying bin.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html#comment2021
https://www.chameleonforums.com/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video-77225/

 

[MSAquatics]

Hatch Rite is awesome. It looks like its mainly pearlite, dont know what else is in it. Ive had great success with it, and I know The Chameleon Farm uses it as well. Obviously more expensive than sand or vermiculite or soil mixes, but it works well.

 

[jannb]

Hatch Rite is awesome. It looks like its mainly pearlite, dont know what else is in it. Ive had great success with it, and I know The Chameleon Farm uses it as well. Obviously more expensive than sand or vermiculite or soil mixes, but it works well.

I would not recommend using Hatch Rite for the laying bin. Hatch Rite, Pearlite and Vermiculite is use to incubate the eggs after you remove them from the laying bin.

 

[fluxlizard]

I use freshly dug dirt from my yard.

Chameleons lay in dirt in the wild.

It smells right, feels right, and if you are east of the rocky mountains and it hasn't rained a few hours ago, it is likely always the right moisture level.

Has worked well for me for many years, and is free and easy to dispose of when finished and always available fresh dug. It's lots easier than the sand/pet mix I used to make and add water too as well, plus it is non-abrasive.

Toss a few dried leaves on top and maybe a dried root buried part way in and females really respond to it.

 

[MSAquatics]

Oh sorry, me either I thought at a glance the question was about incubation media. I also use washed play sand as a laying media.

 

[jannb]

I use freshly dug dirt from my yard.

Chameleons lay in dirt in the wild.

Some members here use soil or a mixture of soil and sand. When I was in Madagascar last Nov. I noticed allot of the little girls hanging out in the small trees and bushes right at the edge of the beach. We also found allot of young chameleons in the same area. One of the locals that could speak English told us that the females stay in that area because of the sand where they lay their eggs.

If you have a stubborn female that's not laying as you think she should then I would recommend trying several kinds of mediums. I always kept 3 laying bins in my female parsons room with 3 different medium.

 

[NHenn]

I've been using the topsoil in Dez's video (Earthgro Topsoil) mixed with play sand for all my bins. I have noticed though that over time the soil lower in the bin gets compacted and becomes much harder to dig in.

I'm actually mixing up a new batch today so I'm going to add more sand than topsoil to this mixture and see if it helps.

 

[TCMontium]

I cant find any 'playsand' in Turkey! Can i use aquarium sand (really looks like beach sand) ?

 

[CarlC]

Yes aquarium sand will work. Reptile sand for gecko's and other lizards works too.

Jann did you happen to notice that even in area's further from the beach like Ambanja the soil still had a high sand content. The only area's I didn't see sand was in dense vigin forest or on mountains.

Carl

 

[sandrachameleon]

any well rinsed sand that is reasonably fine (not gravel) will work, so long as you can dig a tunnel with your fingers into the damp sand without the tunnel collapsing.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I use a mixture of about 60% sand and 40% coco fiber soil myself. Offering several options is a great idea if she's not very interested in the main one provided.

 

[jannb]

Yes aquarium sand will work. Reptile sand for gecko's and other lizards works too.

Jann did you happen to notice that even in area's further from the beach like Ambanja the soil still had a high sand content. The only area's I didn't see sand was in dense vigin forest or on mountains.

Carl

I did notice that the soil seemed sandy even inland just like here in Florida. In the rain forrest there was red mud.