choir peat bunnings

[CjLeveille]

Hi guys
anyone still using the choir peat blocks from bunnings for their darwin carpets? Any advice on easy prep. Seems pretty annoying to have to soak n dry especially if living in winter melbourne. But it also probably one of the better substrates for humidity in a darwin enclosure? Any advice appreciated.

 

[Vixen.]

I've discovered through doing it a few times that the easiest way is to do TINY amount of water, then sit there watching tv show or something and slowly break it up with your fingers, you'll have to do a bit of trial and error but you should end up using just enough water (you have to keep adding little bits more) to let you break it up but you'll have parts that are super dry, mix all that together, and I do a full substrate change when they're in the early stages of a shed, that way extra humidity helps them with the shed and then in a week it's gotten rid of that excess water that parts will have had.

 

[Herpetology]

I poke a hole in to the middle of the block and then pour water in and it expands and soaks better than just wetting the outside of the block

 

[Tsuchinoko]

Besides the already mentioned prep methods, I've recently started chucking it in the oven on a baking tray and It makes the process a lot less painful, you just need to keep an eye on it and mix it up every now and then, usually takes less than an hour. Another option would be a food dehydrator, you can get ones for pretty cheap and theres no need to watch/stir it but I'm guessing it would take a little longer.

 

[CjLeveille]

Thanks a lot guys