Lugarti Natural Reptile Bedding Review for Bearded Dragon

Gecko Fourth dimension feels it is important to publicize new gecko related products and ideas, whether they come from individual hobbyists or professionals.  Appropriately, we have interviewed Robert Coral, the originator of Lugarti, a new line of reptile-related supplies.

Tell us a trivial almost yourself and your reptile production company: how did yous get into reptiles and reptile products? Do you go on reptiles yourself?

How-do-you-do! My name is Robert Coral. I held my first reptile (baby Red-tailed Boa) when I was nineteen years old; I got into reptiles a lot later in life than nigh people in the manufacture. Even so, I more than made up for my tardily start rather quickly. I was hooked from that day forrad and have e'er had a room full of creatures, from Snakes, Lizards, Geckos and Frogs, to Tarantulas, Scorpions, Centipedes, Cockroaches and more than – and I'm not talking just one or two of each. Anyone who knows me can't remember me without a plethora of critters in my life.

Fast frontward 20 years subsequently – advancing from beginner reptile hobbyist, to enthusiast, to breeder, to pet shop volunteer, to general dealer (this is where most people cease), to reptile show vendor, to wholesaler, to reptile retailer, to multiple concatenation stores, to multiple online reptile stores, to reptile supply distributor, to reptile product manufacturer, and soonhoped-for author; y'all can say that I've learned a few things along the way. Virtually of my life has been dedicated to reptiles, one style or another.

I launched Lugarti, Inc. in September of 2015. I wanted a make that not only produced high quality items, merely products that worked well and offered much better solutions than what were currently available. I felt that the industry deserved better.

In my opinion, the quality of all the brands out at that place were either "Fords," "Chevys," or "Hondas," but there were no "Mercedes." While those brands are successful in their own correct, something was missing. So I decided to create the commencement "Lamborghini" brand of reptile products.

How did you come upwardly with the proper name "Lugarti" for your company?

 Most people think "Lugarti" is my concluding name. It's non, I made it up. Coming up with a good business name takes effort. I spent many nights falling comatose trying to figure out a name for this new business venture (even dreaming almost it). I wanted something unique and fitting for a high quality brand.

In Spanish, Lagarto means Lizard. Just that didn't sound exotic enough. I wanted the name to sound similar to Ferrari or Lamborghini, so I changed the last letter to an "i"; Lagarti. Ameliorate, but information technology didn't curl off the natural language like I wanted it to, so I kept thinking. Bugatti is 1 of the about luxurious exotic cars out in that location and sounded cool, then I switched the get-go "a" to a "u" and got, Lugarti. As soon every bit I said it I knew I had it (two months later).

The logo took me another few weeks to figure out. Basically, I took the shield keepsake of a Lamborghini, fabricated it more squat, combined it with Ferrari yellow, and instead of a bull or horse equally the animal (which stand for ability and prestige), I used a Crocodile Monitor.

2017 is going to be a big twelvemonth for Lugarti as I've been working on many new products – virtually of which don't exist in the marketplace. A couple do, merely what I accept coming is far superior than any current offerings. Words tin't describe how excited I go when launching a new production. I feel that all my years of feel have culminated into producing these new products.

At that place has been some interest in your reptile bedding product. What led you lot to develop a new bedding product?

Over the years I've used every single substrate available past every manufacturer. Some are OK, but virtually aren't that cracking and can be harmful to your pet. Being a natural DIY'er, I've played around with various alternatives, mixing and matching countless substrates and creating endless variations of what I now telephone call Natural Reptile Bedding (NRB).

I developed Natural Reptile Bedding over the grade of iv+ years through much experimenting: tweaking and adjusting ingredients/ratios to make the blend perfect for all reptiles, not just certain types. I wanted something that worked well at absorbing odor, held humidity, kept its shape when burrowed in, was prophylactic if ingested, plus looked and felt natural to the animals. I likewise didn't like the feeling of knowing every bag of wood-type shavings or mulches was aiding in the harming of trees.

Natural Reptile Bedding is a specific blend of sphagnum peat moss, extremely fine sand, and bentonite dirt. Information technology is by far the best bedding to use for Disguised Dragons, Leopard Geckos, Crested Geckos, and Tortoises. The central is to pack information technology down tightly and to a depth of at least iii″ – 4″ (the deeper the ameliorate). Unfortunately, a lot of breeders have scared people into thinking that any loose substrate is bad for reptiles – which was off-white advice before NRB – merely that has now inverse.

Natural Reptile Bedding is not only completely safe, when used properly, it is so safe that newly hatched infant reptiles can be raised on information technology. In fact, I've tested NRB over the past few years at present on thousands of baby reptiles of various species, and I tin honestly say that reptiles do much ameliorate on NRB than on any other product bachelor.

While things like tile, carpet, paper or newspaper towels might exist safe, they don't agree proper humidity, don't look all that great in your setup, are far from natural, and most chiefly, the animals don't adopt it. One thing people discover immediately when switching their animal over to NRB is their modify in behavior. Their animals start acting more like they do in the wild – because they're more than comfy and stimulated past the natural look, feel, smell and taste (yes, reptiles actually taste their surroundings) of Natural Reptile Bedding.

A common misconception about Disguised Dragons or Leopard Geckos is that they're "desert dwellers," and thus need to be completely dry out. Yet, people don't know why some of their babe dragons die, or think it's normal for their leopard geckos to accept stuck shed on their toes. These bug don't exist when using NRB [correctly], every bit information technology offers essential humidity while the surface remains dry to the touch.

What type of inquiry did you practise in your development process?

LOTS of experimenting, over 4+ years of various trials on various animals (I'one thousand e'er experimenting). Bearded Dragons were my main bailiwick – testing on literally thousands of babies – and I never lost a single babe due to impaction or dehydration.

One of the best things I discovered using NRB was that information technology's the most desirable egg laying substrate for all reptiles I've tested it on. If you have a depth of at to the lowest degree 4″ – 5″ (packed tightly) of NRB in your breeder's setup – Disguised Dragons, Leopard Geckos, Crested Geckos, etc. – along with your favorite lay box, your gravid animate being volition ever choose to lay straight in the substrate over that lay box (unless you put NRB in the lay box), ix times out of 10, particularly if you keep it slightly moistened (non wet). And if y'all keep your temps right, you tin go out these eggs in the substrate and permit them to hatch naturally! I've done information technology by accident a few times, with Crested Geckos, Gargoyle Geckos, Leopard Geckos, Leachies, and even Russian Tortoises. There's no other substrate out there that y'all can practice this with, safely, as eggs will usually either dry out or mold before they hatch.

 Could you compare and contrast your natural bedding to coco cobweb and excavator dirt?

Coco Fiber is a great product for many amphibian species. It's only non groovy for reptiles:

1. It dries out very rapidly.

two. When it does dry out out it's dusty and gets all over the place.

three. If you endeavour to keep it wet all the time it will mold.

iv. I've personally seen many Bearded Dragons and Leopard Geckos come up through our shop doors with severe impaction due to ingesting large amounts of coco fiber (along with improper humidity). You lot don't have to worry about any of these issues with Lugarti'south Natural Reptile Bedding. Information technology's great stuff! And I'k not just proverb that considering I made it. 🙂

Equally for Excavator Clay, I wrote a detailed article on the differences of the 2 substrates dorsum in July of 2016. You can read it on the Lugarti website. Basically, Excavator Clay is an OK production, but information technology has many flaws: it'due south non piece of cake to work with, information technology's very messy, when it dries it'southward similar physical (making it very hard for burrowing species to dig in it), it's very heavy (I've seen people break their tanks using information technology), it's a pain to replace, it has lots of rocks in it (a possible ingestion chance), it offers very niggling humidity, has almost no odor command, and it'southward hard to grow tropical found species in it. It'south like the opposite of NRB.

Can plants and scavenger bugs such equally isopods, springtails and dermestid beetles survive in your bedding?

Absolutely! Many people accept adapted NRB with their bio-agile setups. I'm actually working on a carve up bio-agile bedding as we speak. Stay tuned for that!

Your bedding instructions recommend irresolute the substrate periodically. How does this work for bioactive prepare-ups where the substrate is generally non changed?

The instructions are aimed at the boilerplate reptile possessor who'south looking for the best substrate solution for their pet, who most likely does non have a bio-agile setup. Once more, it can be adapted to exist used in a bio-active surround, just you must add the necessary ingredients to make it and then. And and then you won't need to modify it for years. Just Lugarti'due south bio-active substrate will provide a separate solution for this soon.

Is there anything more than you desire to tell us nearly your products, company or your delivery to reptile keeping?

Be on the spotter for many new Lugarti products to hit the market in 2017! Near will be never before seen products. Some will be far superior products than what'southward currently available.

I always spend a great corporeality of fourth dimension and pay very close attention to every detail of our products, from bundle design, to ingredients, to the verbiage, and overall quality of the end result. Pregnant, you lot can always expect honest, authentic and advisable data on each product. It e'er bothers me when a manufacture puts info and or a photo of an brute on a product that clearly doesn't belong.

People dearest Lugarti packaging, which I am very proud of. I do all of the work myself, including the verbiage, and take most of the photos I use myself also. The monitor silhouette in our logo was of my vii′ Crocodile Monitor.

I programme to be office of the reptile industry for life, and though I've accomplished a lot so far, I really feel that I'm but getting started.

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Source: https://geckotime.com/interview-robert-coral-lugarti-reptile-supplies/

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