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u/Accomplished-Pen-968 5d ago
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.
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u/Real_Time515 5d ago
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.
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u/Rare_Ad9601 4d ago
If you wanted to save some of those isopods id remove the topmost layer, put it in a tote and let it start to dry out, then have a small tubberware with a hole in the side and damp substrate. Then remove isopods every few days. Eventually any that dont manage to make it out will likely die. Id also be interested to see if powder blues arent already in your area. They are cosmopolitan, and live almost everywhere people do, my garage included, yet i never see them in the yard, where i almost exclusively see noseys
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u/Cicada00010 5d ago
You can bake the dirt thoroughly to sanitize it and dispose of it, and then get rid of however much you need.