I was wondering if you could use grass like bent grass, bermuda, poa anna, blue grass, bahia grass or zoysia as a live substrate for your reptile??? its well adapted to the sandy, acidic soils of low fertility and requires low maintenance. It spreads by stolons and has a coarse texture with short upright stems that grow to about 3-5 inches and requiring less mowing, survives in mild cold temperatures as long as there aren’t several hard freezes since it doesn’t go into a true dormancy and with light freezes will turn brown but as soon as the temperature rises it will recover and re-greens, Withstands close grazing and traffic wear, most of the grasses also love high humidity and temps...so far I think Centipede grass would work best cause its native to China and Parts of Southeast Asia soo it would do well with tropical reptiles I would think????

Heres a link to a site I found with info on the different grasses
Centipede Grass - Lawn, turfgrass seed and care of Centipedegrass - Seedland.com

__________________
"Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself”

charles manson

Are you talking about for use outside or in an inside enclosure or a tank? And for what animal?

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Inside the enclosure.... use it to make a vivarium kinda I guess, not sure what animal I was just wondering if there was a way it may work... I would think it would be best if smaller reptiles like skinks and geckos or something like that were placed in the enclosure???

__________________
"Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself”

charles manson

It is an interesting idea but probably not very practical.
The main problems I see with the grass is
1. You would have to have a thick layer of soil to enable the roots to grow and establish. This is going to make the enclosure extremely heavy!
2. It will be impossible to keep clean! Any feces and urine will disappear into the grass but it will still be there. Soon you will have a very smelly and unhealthy situation.
3.You will have to have high light levels to enable it to survive.
4. And heaven forbid you have any sort of a parasite problem you will have to remove everything and start over from scratch.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

in my opinion, grass is not bad if kept in control. as for waste, there are different types of natural things you could add to help with this issue: isopods (pill bugs) are known to be great to clean up mess and a small colony could thrive in this kind of environment. i have a tiny bit of "grass" in one of my vivariums and I have to "maintain" the root system to control overgrowth. i use rocks (pond pebbles) around the area and a couple inches beneath also so that it doesn't get crazy in there. if you get an established piece of turf with a sandy/pebbly base below, it is easy to take the whole thing out and wash it in water

jenni

well the root system in the grass I was thinking about doesnt got deep at all maybe a in or two and it can survive in sandy soil... its the same grass they use for golf courses heh...the waste would be a problem but then again the use of bill bugs or some other creature that feeds off waste could help...hmmm... i guess the next time I get a empty tank ill have to try it.... i was just hoping I could find someone that may have tried the same thing or hear of anything like that... i know people use moss all the time and other live plants soo I figured it may work with the types of grass I find.....hmmmm....

__________________
"Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself”

charles manson

Maybe, as Jenni used it, as a clump here and there as an accent it would work but covering the entire tank it would be more trouble than it was worth.
People have kicked around the idea of a self cleaning self maintaining habitat for quite awhile. The consensus was that it would only function in a HUGE enclosure but sparsely populated.
It isn't going to happen in a ten or twenty gallon tank.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

hmmm thats what I was afaird you were going to say heh... yea I can understand why though.. well thanks for the help

__________________
"Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself”

charles manson

You could potentially plant it in pots or square containers. Placed level with the substrate it would appear semi-natural.
I had tried planting some grass in one of my enclosures. I ordered some desert grasses since the temps were quite high. Unfortunately it didn't work out that well.
Other than water my substrate is pretty much maintenance free. I maybe have scooped out feces a few times a month.
Having the monitors digging around and the water I add to the substrate dilutes the fecal matter. Also I have the pill bugs and springtails that make quick work off the rest.
The enclosures are 4 ft x 3 ft.

__________________
Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

cool....maybe I can do something like that with the new tank im working on...im hoping to get some croc skinks in august for the tank

__________________
"Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself”

charles manson