What is Bioactive and What Are Its Benefits?

Bioactive enclosures are self-sustaining ecosystems in a controlled space. A naturalistic enclosure has natural substrates like soil and sand, and decor like branches and rocks, but unlike bioactive it requires a fair amount of clean-up and maintenance from the keeper to keep it clean. A bioactive enclosure has a clean-up crew of small invertebrates, live plants, and additional layers of substrate to support these organisms. The clean-up crew consists of small creatures that consume mold, dead plant matter, and the reptile’s waste and recycle it into food for the live plants to support the ecosystem. Creating a bioactive vivarium is like having the circle of life in one enclosure!

Bioactive enclosures benefit both the reptile and the keeper. For the reptile, they are able to display behaviors they would in their native environment like burrowing, climbing, and exploring. Having enriching enclosures allows the animal to express these natural behaviors, which has been proven to benefit their mental health and overall wellbeing. For the keeper, maintenance is much lower in a bioactive enclosure. Because the clean-up crew breakdown a majority of the reptile’s waste, only occasional spot cleaning is required. When the environment is set up appropriately, there is very little to do as far as maintaining proper temperature and humidity levels as the substrate will maintain appropriate humidity. Proper humidity levels are essential for most reptiles’ shedding processes, and having deep substrate allows the animal to retreat into higher humidity levels deeper underground and regulate themselves. The same goes for temperature - having a deeper substrate provides a vertical thermogradient in addition to the horizontal gradient established by having the heating element on one side of the enclosure.