Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi all. I have some bad news. Im losing one of my baby DHLs right now. Ive only had my trio for a couple of months and i love them. last week one of them stopped eating and was acting strange. After 2 days of not eating he was laying in the same spot with his eyes shut. I force fed him a cricket and gave him some water from a dropper. 2 days later i saw a blog that said walnut shells are no good for them, and of course thats what I have. Then sure enough I pulled 2 walnut chunks out of his rear along with a long strand off goo. Now he wont take any food or water at all and it seems like a lost cause. Its killing me to watch him die slowly and if anyone has advice please let me know. I can only stress to anyone new to horned lizards...dont buy crushed walnut shells

Crushed walnut shell substrate is no good for ANY herp! In fact, a good test of the knowledge and professionalism of any pet shop or reptile store is whether or not they sell this product. Don't buy it, and we should all refuse to patronize stores which sell it.

Brad Chambers

This story upsets me every time. No offense to you, but it really goes to show that people just don't do the proper research before the aquisition of a Horned Lizard.

I am not an expert on this issue by any means, but I saw that no one replied to this thread with any advise, and I know that time is of the essence so all I can offer is MY opinions, or what I would do in your situation....

Unfortunately, you are probably right about it being too late. Another thing that probably added to it's condition is diet. You force fed it a cricket?? You are feeding it/them ants I hope? I give my HL's about 1 cricket each, every couple of weeks. With hatchlings (baby's) I would be even more concerned with feeding them crickets. They would need to be very small. You might try soaking the lizard in room temperature water for a few minutes at a time, often as possible, over the next couple of days. This may help break down the impacted matter in its digestive system, while at the same time hydrating the lizard. I would urge you not to try force feeding it again PERIOD! If it in fact an impaction issue, this matter needs to be cleared out of the digestive system. Make sure you keep the lizards tank warm. Do you have a source of UVB in the tank? If not, I suggest you get a UVB bulb now!
BUY A BAG OF PLAY SAND FROM HOME DEPOT ASAP!!! CHEAP AND ESSENTIAL!!
Hope this helps, (although I fear it is too late)
Keep us updated.
Ryan

Great advice! The only thing I slightly disagree with is the suggestion to get play sand. I'd recommend you spend a bit more for calcium sand. While FAR safer than walnut shells, I have seen impaction from playsand.

BUT-there's Calci-sand, and then there's Calci-sand lol. Most brands of calcium based sands carried by pet stores are similar in both grain structure and material. They are mostly composed of jagged, sharp grains of the mineral CALCITE. This is a complex subject, but you can think of calcite as the "crystalline" form of Calcium-very much like diamond is the crystalline form of Carbon. And, like diamond, calcite is very hard and resists being broken down-especially in your lizard's stomach! Not a good substrate choice for our reptiles!

There is an alternative. One company (that I know of), Carib-Sea, makes a sand composed entirely of smooth, rounded grains of "aragonite" (coral sand). This product dissolves VERY readily-in fact if you wet your fingers and take a small pinch of it, you can feel it dissolve as you rub the fingers together! And what's even nicer is that this product (Reptilite)is roughly half the price of most other calcium sands! I've been using it for four years now on a variety of geckos and other desert and savannah lizards with not a single impaction.

Brad Chambers

That' s definately a topic that has been debated hundreds of times on this forum! My experience is this: I try to simulate natural habitat as close as possible, (minus parasites, mites, predators,etc.. LOL) and I most commonly observe HL's in sandy areas, creek beds, desert flats, ect.... Play sand is the closest to natural substrate to those that you can BUY!! That being said, I do think the concept of calci -sand is great. But, the only brand I can find in the stores in my area is T-rex and I just don't care for the fact that they dye their product. Still, let's not kid ourselves, impaction is common in reptiles and WILL happen with just about any substrate that can be ingested. It's our job to try and minimize the probability of it happening in our care.
Great reply Brad, I look forward to someone elses opinion on this matter.
Calci-sand is just too expensive for me. I try to change my enclosures at least once every other month. The cost of that added to feeding costs would kill my wallet!!
Ryan

Great post Ryan-I think we're pretty much in total agreement. In fact, as long as proper husbandry and dietary considerations are followed, I think playsand is perfectly safe-most or all cases of impaction involving playsand can, IMO, be traced to improper diet or vitamin supplementation. Just for the info of those who would like to try the safer calci sand product, you should at least be able to special order Carib-Sea's Reptilite from your local INDEPENDENT pet or reptile store (the chains cant usually get products not sanctioned by "corporate" lol)....

Brad Chambers

If I could add one thought to this post, I have used natural sand from dry creek beds for quite a while and have seen no issues with this at all. It is more or less free, except that you have to go collect it. On the positive side, you can take as much as you like. This could be a problem near cities where folks change their oil in the yard or spray fertilizers or pesticides. But usually in the western U.S. you can drive a little and get some sand you are comfortable with. Try to get it upriver from any roads or other human acitivy. This is the sand they thrive on in the wild. My two cents....

Regarding impaction, I would be interested in any info someone might have regarding positively identifying impaction. There are a few other issues, such as internal parasites, that might resemble the symptoms of impaction. Anyone?
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www.Phrynosoma.Com

I have many reptiles and I have had several different reptiles become impacted using this substrate, not a horned lizard (he has sand). I almost lost my 4 year old savannah monitor due to this. Everyone raves how it is the best substrate for reptiles. I don't believe so!! Problem is their food can get coated. A little each time at feeding can add up to alot in the long run. My monitor was so plugged as I said, I almost lost him. I would not suggest using it to anyone!