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Kakariki, Care, Breeding, Ecology, and Conservation :: View topic - Soil?
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Soil?

 
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Tontana
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 10:16 am    Post subject: Soil?

I've been trying to find an alternative to sawdust, and have peeked around in sites which sells stuff to terrariums, they tend to have numerous of different soils and wood chips.

And now I came across of this;
Namiba Terra Terrariumhumus is gained 100 % from natural resources. This terrariumhumus dinstinguishes through a high absorption and water holding capacity and is suitable for humid and rainforest terrariums. 650 g brick = 9 litre
Source;http://www.namibaterra.de/uk/index.html




The things that awoke my interest was high absorbation and the fact that they'll be able to scratch around in it.
However, it's says on the Swedish site that pH is around 5.0 - 6.0

It would be really reliving to get rid of the sawdust...but, is this an bad idea?

All opinions are w3c
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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:26 pm    Post subject:

You mean using in nesting boxes or avairy floor?
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Tontana
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:27 pm    Post subject:

Aviary floor :)
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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:05 pm    Post subject:

Well I mix up a 5:1 motar mix, about 40 to 50L depending on the flight size, carry in in 20L buckets, trowel out wit a slope that alows for runoff/drainage When dry spead dry sand, a couple mm thick
Have also tried round river gravel a 2 to 3 inches thick on grond thats good to..good drainage

Bark, sawdust and stuff gets wet, doesnt always dry quick, a lot of work replacing etc
Its important to keep flights with dry floors, stops issues with worms and stuff like that

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Tontana
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:37 am    Post subject:

Ah...you mean for outdoors aviaries, I should have said that - it's an cage (it's just that in swedish we often refer big indoor cages for aviaries for some stupid reason)

So I'm afraid I can't do that...I long for the day when I can tho.
Sorry for my rather vague explanations in the previous post >_<

Yeah, the compost is getting rather overloaded from all the sawdust I remove everyday...:/
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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:46 am    Post subject:

Couple mm of sand pumice sand if avalible in Sweden
Uae small hand left rake to sort the rubbish from the sand and top up with a few handfuls each week,

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Tontana
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:03 am    Post subject:

No it isn't. Not as far as I know at least, can look around.
Is pumice common in NZ?

The best thing I've found so far is that kind of soil - or rather, that's what sounds best in my ears.

When it gets a little warmer in three months or so, I'll see if I can't dry some leaves or something in the sun at use that :)
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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:34 am    Post subject:

Pumice sandis coaser and lighter, easier to rake etc
If not avalible use a coarse sand.

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Tontana
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:43 am    Post subject:

That, coarse sand, I'm rather paranoid about - sand in general.
On the pictures I saw on pumice sand it seemed ok tho...don't know why I thought that would better tho. :P

We lost a bird some years ago because he had eaten too much sand. The sand had gathered in his stomach and well....there was nothing to be done about it other than putting him to sleep.
I know that this isn't common but it can happen.
It was not a nice way to go and I don't ever want to experience that again...

So sand is the absolute last option...I'll rather find some kind of soil or even be stuck with the sawdust, work harder and spend extra money on that.

Is there really no other option? Is the soil I showed earlier an bad option?
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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:22 am    Post subject:

Clean soils are fine NZ bush humus tends to be acid.
Sand killing a bird suggests to me this would be a secondary reason to some primary issue that caused the bird to conume enuogh..or if the dand had some contaminant like cement.

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Tontana
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:45 am    Post subject:

Okay, this soil (it doesn't say so on the english homepage) his heat sterilized so...it should be ok.

Quote:
Sand killing a bird suggests to me this would be a secondary reason to some primary issue that caused the bird to conume enuogh


Absolutely. The problem is that it happens so fast. That bird might just have had an small stomach ache and then it got worse as the sand started to gather in the stomach which lead to that he ate more...

That's just an theory, but still. It happens so fast. Just an small gathering can do so much damage.

I'll continue to look after something that suits both me and my birds, well, the birds has the first priority. I really appriciate all your help, and all further suggestions and thoughts are most w3c
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