Zoo Med Cavern Kit with Excavator

At the moment this is a better deal than the excavator packages that don't include the extra stuff, so you should get it even if you don't want the balloons and trowel. However, I used the balloons and found they worked very well. I didn't really mess with the string or the cardboard tube. My goal was to make hides that my halloween crab could go in but that I could still see into, and I feel it worked well. See the photos.I will say that it ended up being less clay than I expected; I had enough to make four big (for a small crab) caverns but certainly not enough to cover the whole floor as well. You may need multiple boxes for big projects. I was worried that the high humidity might cause the excavator to soften, but that has not been a problem. So far it has held its shape for several months.

Everyone hypes this kit up, and with good reason. My scorpion absolutely thrives on the excavator clay side of his tank. He easily made burrows to his liking. I used a black sand and excavator clay mixture. Make sure you follow instructions and give enough time to dry.

I got this for my 3 year old beardie’s enclosure and I was hoping to get some diy caves for him. The packaging was good, no leaks, ballon’s were also in tact. The instructions say to add 3 cups of water per box but I’d take that with a grain of salt. Not only did that make it extra dry, and unable to mold, but it also didn’t get to the bottom of all the sand. Ballon was also hard to keep still, and make a cave with. That’s why it turned into a bowl holder, lol. It came with a lot, my cage used about two boxes and it’s a 120gallon. Great addition to his tank! I’d add more water time though. Maybe 4-5 cups

This was purchased for my teens leopard gecko habitat. My teen and I had fun working together on this project which was a great way to spend time together. We used the whole box of medium but had to use a little more water than the instructions said in order to form the material into a workable consistency and it dried rather quickly under the heat lamp used to warm the habitat.The instructions were clean to turn the bag out over the side of the box to use as a mixing container but we found once the water was fairly mixed in that removing the bag and squeezing the bag with out hands was fairly mess free and did a good job of evenly mixing the dried clay and water together.We love that this can be wet and remixed to change the habitat as desired in the future.

Pros: Works. You can build with it and later rehydrate and build again.Cons: it’s messy. My dragon doesn’t dig in it and seems to avoid it. After it’s been in there a while the ability to rehydrate and reshape become less possible with poop and every thing else.

The media could not be loaded. Whether your trying to make mounds, or making a hide, tunnels, ext, this kit it perfect 👍. I love the price point for what I got, I’m very pleased. I did everything you see by hand, no balloons, no nothing. The tools are neat but I felt it hindered my creativity with making my project unique, not only did I get to make a sloped spot for my Leo to climb and bask but I also got the idea to make it a hide as well. Even had left over materials for a basking mound, couldn’t be more pleased. Get it try it out!! You will not regret this, also your reptile will absolutely love it. Make sure to dry well, seems like it’s taking a while.

The cave turns out great and this kit comes with everything you need- it WILL take a while to dry tho, several days, so be prepared for that. Increasing airflow with a fan will drastically speed up this process. This was my first time using it and the instructions were easy to follow and the stuff easy to sculpt

It's a project to mix the clay and set up the structure but it was a fun one! It did Crack some when drying but it doesn't bother me. My gecko sure loves his home with this! So much more natural than random hides here and there. I still used his hides, just built a layer above them so there's more space to explore and it's more aesthetically pleasing.