Excavator Clay vs Pottery/Sculpting Clay

So today, I bought some Zoo Med Excavator Clay, and it was pretty expensive. I was just wondering if I were to buy some all natural sculpting or pottery clay (not air dry clay, but clay you have to put in a kiln) would it be ok for desert enclosures.

if it's clean clay I don't think it's a problem.

I don't know Patrick but I did pottery once and that clay turns into stone... so I personally wouldn't use that.

Well, clay tends to do that lol. I'm going to try it. My 3D art teacher uses this grey clay that turns white when cooked in the kiln. Someday I'll get some from the art store and let it air dry in a 10 gal.

Thanks for the responses.

I use red clay mixed with coco fibre. Works very well

shaneshac wrote:

I use red clay mixed with coco fibre. Works very well

Air dry clay?

There is an old thread on here that talks about dissolving the red clay in some water and then mixing the clay liquid into coco fiber and/or sand.

So making the clay into slip, then mixing it? I'll try that. After I use my excavator. Many environments where scorpions are found have clay in the soil/dirt. I'm going the extra mile to make my enclosures as realistic to the natural environments as possible. And that includes substrate color, decor items found in the environment, etc etc.


EDIT: My future [HOW TO] is going to be about researching, and re-creating natural environments (With examples for certain species). So this info is all relevant for the research and what not.

Yep...then as it dries out it will be throughout the mix. As you probably have experienced, excavator clay will settle some when you add water to the dry clay/sand mix. I've never tried the liquid clay trick, but it makes sense that you would have the clay distributed better that way.

I've never tried excavator clay before. I've only had P. imperator and then the new R. junceus.