Very Inexpensive Cypress Mulch!!!!
OK, I am probably going to kick myself for giving this away, but, I am just that kind of person. I have been looking to see if anyone has posted this before, so forgive me if I missed it.
Cypress mulch here is pretty darn expensive, about $10 for 8 lb. bag. This does not even cover a small boas enclosure.....
What we do at my company is make our own mulch... Not as difficult as it sounds. Heres how:
1. Go to your favorite home improvement store, pick up a few bags of cypress mulch for the yard. Make sure that it doesnt have any kind of pesticides added to it, or fertilizers. It usually runs about $1.50- $2.00 per 2 cubic foot bag. (about 20lbs?)
2. Get a large plastic or rubbermaid container. We use a couple of the large 55 gal. plastic trash cans with lids. Fill it about 1/2 full with the mulch.
3.Fill it all the way with plain old water. Use a pitchfork or small shovel, or whatever, your hands if you want, to stir it up about every 15 minutes or so for about 2 hours. This allows all of the gunk and dirt / dust to fall to the bottom.
4.Leave it covered over-night.
5.In the morning spread out the mulch that is still floating in the water onto a large tarp, or towel. You will probably have to move it around for a couple of hours to let it dry out pretty good.
6.Once pretty dry, place the mulch in some plastic garbage bags and place in a cool, dry place.
7.Dump the "sludge" in the bottom of the containers in your gardens or flower beds, it makes pretty good fertilizer mulch....
We have been using this method for the past 4 years, and have never had any problems. The only thing is that sometimes the chunks in the yard mulch bags are a little large. Just be careful what size chunks you use for smaller reptiles. We usually get about 6-8 regular size garbage bags full of usable mulch for about $10.....
This is just what we use for our snakes. Every snake may be different. ALWAYS keep a close eye on your reptiles after changing their enclosure in ANY way.
Hope this saves you a few bucks......
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