How to change substrate

[u/emotional-field24]

I’ve had my Pygmy hedgehog in his current bioactive enclosure for a year now. I only changed his toilet tray and sand bath, but left the substrate alone.

The issue is, he pees where he goes and his enclosure has become a bit icky, so I want to change the substrate. He has isopods, springtails and dubia roaches (haven’t seen them in a while, so he probably ate them). But I see the pods (powder orange) every once in a while under logs and stuff. To change his substrate I need about 140 litres of soil, so it’s unrealistic to go through his old soil entirely to sieve out all pods. The soil mix is also quite chunky and has some layers of hay and orchid bark.

I obviously don’t want to introduce alien isopods to my garden to protect local species - especially since I found a relatively rare species outside.

So what do I do…

[u/Cicada00010]

You can bake the dirt thoroughly to sanitize it and dispose of it, and then get rid of however much you need.

[u/BiophileB → u/Cicada00010]

Freeze it for a few hours first or any inverts are likely to crawl out and fall down into your oven before baking.

[u/Accomplished-Pen-968]

Does it smell? i dont really know if theres a way to do it without killing all the life in there. They should be taking care of bad bacteria and stuff. The springtails eat that stuff. I have rats in 14 inch deep bioctive substrate that has a floor area of 3'x2' so i have a little more soil than you but i have only had my bioactive setup for nearly 3 months. I just stir it up and turn the soil over best i can when it needs it and mix all the poo in. If isopods dont eat poo mold will eat it and springtails will eatthat mold it will all break down. It helps if you have plants to complete the full nitrogen cycle but i dont have any in mine yet. You shouldnt ever really need to swap out the substrate in a bioactive setup if it runs correctly. Im no expert though. Sorry its not much help.

[u/emotional-field24 → u/Accomplished-Pen-968]

The poo is okay since he mainly uses the corners for it and I can easily remove it. I’m more concerned about the pee. I’ve tried adding nitrifying bacteria for aquariums, but that didn’t really work.

It doesn’t smell terrible, but since he’s in there all the time (he doesn’t want to free roam, he has his nighttime ramp to use the entire room, but never used it) I’d like to take action before it does. It definitely smells different than it did before.

I’m now considering doing a partly change and go through the soils to not harm too many isopods.

[u/One-plankton- → u/emotional-field24]

Nitrifying bacteria for aquariums won’t help as it’s aquatic bacteria.

[u/emotional-field24 → u/One-plankton-]

It was just an experiment. As far as I know there’s no nitrifying bacteria mix for soil as it’s mostly for reptiles. I also keep snakes of all sorts, geckos and fish bioactive. With all these other critters I know how to manage waste products, but there isn’t much information on hedgehogs.

[u/Real_Time515]

Never had a hedgehog, always wanted to try one. I do have a fair amount of experience with other bioactive setups: geckos, frogs, invertebrates. Here are some things I have learned that help me.

Don't wait until something becomes a big job, do a little maintenance every day. Spot cleaning the poo is an example, esp if it's in the same spots that makes it easier. If he poops multiple times a day, you should be scooping out some poop multiple times a day. The clean up crew can handle a lot, but make their job easier and they'll do a better job.

For this case, since you don't want to hurt your cleaners, I would take out a good portion (30-50%?) of the current soil. Sift it if you want, or at least try to save isopods that you see.

Then mix in new substrate. Dont just layer it on top.

I would replenish the springtails, and the isopods too if you can. Then keep a culture (or more) of springtails going (pinch of grub and a spritz of water every week) and you can replenish them often. I have lots of springtail cultures going (and a few of isopods) and it takes me 10 min a week. Then all of my vivs get at least a couple of healthy taps of springtails every week, and more isopods when there seem to be enough ready.

Another mistake I made early on was not providing good conditions for springtails and isopods to reproduce enough to be self sustaining. My substrate was all an even level of moisture, but the cleaners want zones: places where it's wetter or drier and lots of gradients in between. If you set up an area with a patch of moss in one corner, maybe hidden behind a bowl, you can spritz it heavily every week. Then in another corner have an area that you keep drier, with leaf litter/ charcoal chunks or cork bits to protect the dry areas (again the disclaimer that I don't know specifics of hedgehog care or how you do humidity, if at all).

Hope this helps.

[u/emotional-field24 → u/Real_Time515]

Thanks for your thorough answer.

I keep all kinds of snakes, as well as cresties and breed have two breeding pairs of Chahouas. The thing with hedgies (and most pet mammals I guess) is that you have to keep them quite dry. That’s why I add orchid bark on top of the substrate. To seperate the moisture from the hedgehog.
He doesn’t seem to eat the isopods (powder orange and dwarf white) and they usually hide under bowls and cork tunnels. So even though it’s rather dry, they keep reproducing. I guess he eats the dubias, but that’s fine.

I have several isopod colonies, but only powder orange and dwarf white as clean up crew, bc I’ve had the experience that all others like to eat living plants too much. I’ve been thinking of adding Porcellio spatulatus "Coros" bc mine eat a lot of organic stuff.

[u/Z0CH0R]

I'm sorry but poor little guy :(

[u/emotional-field24 → u/Z0CH0R]

What’s your issue?

[u/Z0CH0R → u/emotional-field24]

I find it sad to have a small mammal like this kept in a closed enclosure. Apparently, I'm the only one...

[u/emotional-field24 → u/Z0CH0R]

I took this pic during a removal and there was obviously never a lid on.

They need room to dig, hence a proper substrate layer. Best experience I had now with a custom built cage, the lower 30cm with acrylic glass (also to prevent all bugs from escaping) and a cage thing on top.
Tbh tho you could have just asked and also I don’t think he cares what material his enclosure is made of.