Safe, commercially available soil that can be eaten?

[luckykarma]

There's been a couple threads about allowing the Chams to eat soil. I've been trying to find something commercially that would be safe. Dave had mentioned supersoil but that now has fertilizers in it. All the other organic I saw had cow and chicken manure.

Anything anyone can recommend that would be safe to let them eat and not fortified with any parasite found in the manure used in many organic soils?

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

There's been a couple threads about allowing the Chams to eat soil. I've been trying to find something commercially that would be safe. Dave had mentioned supersoil but that now has fertilizers in it. All the other organic I saw had cow and chicken manure.

Anything anyone can recommend that would be safe to let them eat and not fortified with any parasite found in the manure used in many organic soils?

I think supersoil says it has plant foods in it. I think it always had but they changed the advertisement on the bag. It went from dark brown to light brown and they mentioned it had "Plant Foods" on the front. I believe it said the same thing just in a different location on the bag. I think it is all natural plant food and organic. I don't think it has changed. I have two bags at home. A new one and one of the old ones. I can check when I get home I can't remember if it mentioned fertilizer or not.

 

[Dsignrguy]

Actually, It does have fertilizer of some sort in it. I picked up a bag today and its lister on the back. Every^$@%&#*^ bag of soil they (home depot, who suck) had included something bag, and they had NO plain topsoil at all. I settled for the best thing they had which was the supersoil potting mix (light brown bag). I guess I'll put a thin thayer of organic topsoil on top when I find it and do the large mexican beach pebble thing.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

There are actually several varieties of "Supersoil" (by the same company) on the market.

But ......

This is what I do*:

http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/plants.html

-Brad

*you could sub sand for the topsoil (the topsoil I use is practically sand)

 

[Jam]

parasites tend to be pretty species specific. The chances of a horse or cow parasite infecting your cham are slim to none. Most parasites have species specific variations ... for example Trichuris (whip worm) infects humans, pigs, dogs and mice ... but they have Trichuris trichuria, suis, vulpis and muris respectively. There are a few that cross similar species ... but making a mammalian to reptile jump is pretty large. i'd take it over fertilized soil anyday.

jamie

 

[luckykarma]

"The soil mix that I prefer is one I make myself by combining two parts sifted peat moss and one part sifted topsoil.
The reason I sift it is because I allow the chameleon to have access to the soil and consume it if he wishes.
There is some danger of impaction with this practice if there are larger pieces of material in the potting mix."

Hi Brad hope you don't mind me posting a quote from that link for quick reference in this thread for the future.

So---- top soil that has cow/chicken/bat manure as many have one or several of those listed is safe? Correct Jamie?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I would think they would be safe, however, strictly speaking, topsoil is a very low grade, sandy, fill dirt.
Don't confuse it with potting soil or another garden grade soil.
I know some companies offer a richer product labeled as topsoil, but I am referring to soil that truly has no enrichment what-so-ever.

-Brad

 

[sandrachameleon]

I wonder if I could use worm castings? I have red wigglers helping me with composting in the greenhouse
not that my current chams have ever seen soil. I just grow vines just in water now. my first panther cham never cared for big plants, so I didnt bother introducing them to the newer members of my family. They mostly avoid even the vines.

 

[Jam]

birds and reptiles are closer than mammals and reptiles, and chickens are known for coccidial infections, but in my own opinion I would probably go for it ... especially if it was properly composted manure -- I' wouldn't put fresh top of the pile manure into my cham's cage. I'll dig around in the parasitology literature more today to see if I can dig (lol) anything up. Jamie