Exo Terra Stone Desert Substrate

$19.97

The Exo Terra Stone Desert mimics the natural soil found in arid regions, like deserts or savannahs. Most desert soils are not purely sand-based but rather a combination of sand, decomposed granite and clay resulting in interesting and sometimes colorful rock formations.

Exo Terra's Stone Desert allows you to create your own desert or savannah landscape, including cool-humid burrows as well as warmer elevated basking areas. The cool-humid burrows allow your reptiles to absorb the much needed moisture via their skin while sleeping or hiding, while the warmer elevated basking areas help your reptiles to thermoregulate by offering various important temperature gradients.

Natural desert soil, no added dyes or chemicals
Ideal to create your own desert or savannah landscape
Allows you to create outcrops, tunnels and burrows
Stimulates natural digging and burrowing behavior
Does not collapse once dry
Excellent heat conductor

Available in: 10 kg (22 lbs)

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Quantity

Additional Details

How to use the Exo Terra Stone Desert

Step 1: Terrarium

Any Exo Terra glass Terrarium is suitable. For desert species we recommend using a low or wide size, to achieve a suitable basking distance. Remove the Screen Cover and position the terrarium flat on its back.

Step 2: Preparing, applying and shaping the substrate

Start by building a sturdy base structure, consisting of outcrops, holes and basking platforms. Create a rough base design with styrofoam to add volume and simultaneously reduce the weight of your build. Mix 2 parts of Stone Desert with 1 part of water. Apply the Stone Desert and shape the main structural elements (inflated balloons can help to shape hides and burrows).

The cool-humid burrows allow your reptiles to absorb the much needed moisture via their skin while sleeping or hiding, while the warmer elevated basking areas help your reptiles to thermoregulate by offering various important temperature gradients.

Step 3: Incorporate additional decoration elements
Stone Desert can also be used to secure heavy decor items, like branches or rocks. Incorporate some of Exo Terra’s Desert Plants to enhance the natural look of your terrarium.

Step 4: Finish with loose substrate
Sprinkle loose Stone Desert on top of the drying substrate to add extra relief to the smooth base structure.

Step 5: Let the substrate dry
Drying could take up to 1-3 days, depending on the thickness of the layers. Once dry, the Stone Desert will retain its shape and any incorporated decoration will stay secured and fixed. You can now position the terrarium back on its base.

Step 6: Add bioactive substrate and live plants
Plantation soil can be used as a live plant medium, inside burrows and under hides (ET Skull) to create a somewhat humid microclimate. Cool-humid burrows are important for thermoregulation and hydration, especially for desert species!

Step 7: Final decoration touches

Fill up the remaining terrarium floor space with Exo Terra Stone Desert. More loose substrate will allow your reptiles to execute their natural digging and burrowing behavior. At this stage, you can add a Water Dish and any other remaining decoration to the setup.

Step 8: Add fixtures, heating and monitoring equipment

Install suitable fixtures and appropriate light bulbs (UVB, LED etc.). Make sure to thoroughly research the requirements of the species you are keeping. When in doubt, make sure to check out our Exo Terra caresheets.

Install the Exo Terra Thermostat and connect it to the heat source (e.g. basking spot, heat mat). Watch the Exo Terra Thermostat movie for the complete instructions. Install thermometers and any other preferred terrarium equipment and… congratulations!! You are now the owner of a fully equipped naturalistic Exo Terra Terrarium!

Shipping

Petland ships within Canada, Monday through Friday (excluding statutory holidays). Orders made online after Friday at 11 am CDT will ship the following business day (subject to daily order volume and warehouse availability). When considering delivery times, please allow 1-2 business days to process your order after the order is placed. Courier delivery times do not include the day the order is picked up from our warehouse.

Petland will happily ship to your home and/or office. Normally, we use Canada Post, Purolator & Canpar for delivery. "Free Shipping" will usually be sent through Canpar Ground service or Purolator ground service. Canpar Ground & Purolator Ground services do not have guaranteed delivery times and the shipping times will only be estimates.

Changes to our shipping policy due to the Canada Post labour negotiations

Canada Post update as of November 21, 2025:

The parties (Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers – CUPW) have reached agreements in principle but have yet to finalize tentative collective agreements for signing. While we do so, we have agreed that all strike/lockout activity is suspended. As the parties work to finalize the tentative agreements, we will make no comment on the details of any potential agreement.

If you are shipping the order to your business or workplace, please include the business name in the shipping address. Unfortunately, Canpar will not deliver to rural locations. For a complete list of these postal codes, click HERE

Orders may be subject to cancellation or require additional confirmations for the following instances due to the risk of fraud:

The Billing and Shipping addresses are different, and the shipping address is not a Business.
Orders with international billing addresses

Orders that include "special order" items will not be shipped until the "special order" item arrives in our warehouse.

Please provide a street address if you choose "Free Shipping", Canpar or Purolator as your shipping method.

If you have a PO Box, Rural Range Road, Township Road or Site land location address, you must choose Canada Post as your shipping method.
If your address is an apartment or condo, please include the buzzer number.
If you are shipping to your business or work, please indicate the company name.

Initial orders will require a signature upon delivery. If you are placing your first order and want the shipment left at your front door with "no signature required", you can enter the request in "Special instructions for seller" on your cart page. If you have already processed your order, you can email the request before noon of that business day through our "Contact Us" page. If you place your order on the weekend, you must email the request by noon on Monday. If you have made the request, your subsequent orders will include the request for "no signature required".

If you do not make the request and are not home to sign for the package, Canada Post, Canpar & Purolator will take the shipment to one of their locations where you can pick up your package.

*Please note that neither Petland nor the delivery service is liable for any lost or stolen packages if you have requested the shipment to be left at your front door.

Risk of Loss and Shipping and Delivery:

All items purchased from Petland.ca are made pursuant to a shipment contract with a shipping carrier. This means that the risk of loss and title for such items pass to you upon delivery of the Products to the carrier. Products will be shipped to the address designated by you, if applicable, so long as such address is complete and complies with any shipping restrictions contained on the site. The time and location of delivery of the products to you is at the discretion of the carrier.

Undeliverable packages:

Occasionally, we will have a package returned to us because it was undeliverable. When this occurs, we will issue a full refund for the price of the product plus taxes. Shipping charges are non-refundable. If your order had "Free Shipping" the shipping charges incurred by Petland for your order will be deducted from the total product refund amount.

We can receive packages as undeliverable for the following reasons:

Missing house number, unit number or buzzer number
Missing street name, City, or province
Incorrect Postal Code
Failed delivery attempts or the item was not picked up from the local depot within 5-10 business days.
Refused by the recipient.

Petland.ca customers have toll-free access to highly trained customer service reps for solutions to a variety of pet questions. Contact us with any questions or concerns.

This is an approximate conversion table to help you find your size.

Italian	Spanish	German	UK	US	Japanese	Chinese	Russian	Korean
34	30	28	4	00	3	155/75A	36	44
36	32	30	6	0	5	155/80A	38	44
38	34	32	8	2	7	160/84A	40	55
40	36	34	10	4	9	165/88A	42	55
42	38	36	12	6	11	170/92A	44	66
44	40	38	14	8	13	175/96A	46	66
46	42	40	16	10	15	170/98A	48	77
48	44	42	18	12	17	170/100B	50	77
50	46	44	20	14	19	175/100B	52	88
52	48	46	22	16	21	180/104B	54	88

Exo Terra Stone Desert Substrate

How to use the Exo Terra Stone Desert

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