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Am I using the right moss?

pfeiffer

pfeiffer

New member
I am incubating our first clutch and I was shown Flukers Repti-moss by a worker at a pet shop. It does not specify what exact type of moss it is and I just read on another site only certain moss should be used and others could be harmful.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated
 
I'm actually wondering the same thing, I almost picked up a block of it at a pet store, but ended up not. It just says it's 'forest moss' or something, doesn't it? I'll leave it for someone more knowledgeable to answer, personally, I incubate in sphagnum.
 
Thanks

Regit said:
I incubate in sphagnum.
Click to expand...

I had done some research about incubating and requested that moss but the girl gave me the Foster's, I should have just went somewhere else after all when I asked her about a sweater box she replied with"Isn't that something you get from department stores at Christmas?" :cry:
 
I've been incubating (first year, only 2 clutches) in spaghnum. It's done well, other than killing 6 corn eggs because I didn't boil it first... You can get spaghnum at Home Depot, Lowes, or the average gardening store. As for shoe and sweater boxes? Check Big Lots. They have Sterilite 6 qt shoe boxes for $1 a piece, as well as larger sizes.
 
Floof said:
It's done well, other than killing 6 corn eggs because I didn't boil it first... .
Click to expand...


So the moss needs to be boiled first?????
None of the sites I have been reading about the incubating process on said anything about boiling moss.
The eggs have already been in that repti-moss for awhile should I be worried?
How can you tell if the moss has killed some/all the eggs?:awcrap:
 
I don't know if anyone else does, or if this was just a fluke. I got my stuff from a Home Depot--it's made for gardening. All I know is I'll be boiling all moss from now on.

Once two eggs were definitely dead, it was easy to pick out which ones were going to die. When a weird kind of mold-ish stuff (looked a bit like cigarette ash) and a black coloring starts to cover the egg, it's too late. They get soft, and eventually shrivel up if you can't/don't remove them (all but two are stuck to good eggs). I almost tried listerine, but I didn't come across the suggestion soon enough and forgot about it when the mold overtook the last 3. 11/17 stayed good, though, in the stuff, which I would say is pretty good odds since the first 3 started going bad in the first few weeks.

The reason I don't assume these eggs were bad from the start is one of them in particular had the most obvious veining one week into incubation. It was very obviously fertile and I thought looked like probably the healthiest egg in the bunch--until it went bad (4th or 5th egg to go).

Anyway, like I said, I don't know if it's normal. I don't think it is normal, since I have never heard of it (haven't done too much looking, either, really), and never hear "boil the moss" suggestions. I'd say boil the moss to be safe, but keep in mind that I have no evidence that it was strictly the moss's fault.
 
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