real grass in a cage?

[khaosinc]

So Spike is getting a refit while I have a week off in July. A bit taller, and a heavily filtered water feature (more for my amusement than his, and its easier to drain poop than clean it) so I was thinking, if the bottom of the cage is water tight, and had drain rock and pvc in it, why not just use sod and give him real grass. I'm sure he'd love shredding it, and it wouldn't be so hard on his poor mangled toes, and if he had somewhere nice and wet to poop, cleaning shouldn't be to much of an issue..

Sod is cheap compared to fake grass, and with a little maintaince I can't see how it wouldn't be an easier upkeep?

has anyone tried this. The floor area would be about 12' x 4'

[darkluvr]

it sounds like it would work, but you'd have to keep close eyes on him to make sure he doesnt injest something with it... never know when there might be a rock or a shiny piece of paper in it....

[deanie]

I would think that it would be terrible to clean up if he used it to potty on. Part of that urate if theirs is clear and slimmy and I think it would terrible to try and get it all up. And I guess another question would be how are you going to disinfect it if you realy can't see it and without killing the grass. And if you don't disinfect, then I would guess that you are going to end up with a smell tht you aren't going to like. I know that I get a smell from my adults cage if I don't change her paper and disinfect every day from her pool that she uses to potty in [she has plenty of spiillage from her flipping around in it]..
HMM!! I wonder?

[Merlin]

Its not a very practical idea. The soil will pose an impaction hazard and any urates and the fluid part of the feces are going to soak into the soil.
You will soon have what smells like a sewer.
Not to mention the growth of mold and bacteria.