Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well im finally done with sand. my alergies are killing me from it and we all have been told its not good for dragons anyways. personally my dragons never had any problem with it but we have heard the stories from others. so with an idea i got from someone else on these forums, carlos n paco, i have now lined my cages with ceramic tile. they are easy to clean, look great, and even double at the heat rocks under a heat lamp. it does require more cleaning of the cage, have to clean the poop up asap but you should be doing that anyways no matter what substrate you use. with sand some people tend not to clean the poop out as often. anyways, i bought the cheapest tile at home depot,about 9 bucks a box of 11 tiles 12"x12" and had them cut to size. a 40 gallon breeder tank uses 3 12x12 and 3 - 5 1/2 x 5 1/5 inch peices. same for a 30 breeder as well. home depot will also cut it for you at no charge. no more sand, newspaper, paper towels, or green carpets for me.

this is a good idea but did you grout them in or just laid the in to fit. also did you get the gloss or the rough tile. will there stools soak into the tiles easy if its a rough tile and can the dragon get good traction on the tiles. the only bad this I see about this is winter shut down the tiles will get a lot colder then the temps in the room which will bring the dragons temps down way low. I'm thinking if there not grouted in all you would need to do is take the tiles out once a month and soak them in hot water with a table spoon of bleach and then there like new again. if you don't mind please send me a few pics and exactly what you did.
thanks peach.
jjcdragons@aol.com

i asked the same questions to the guy i saw who first did this. no neither of us grouted the tiles, making them easy to take out and clean. and yes water with a bit of bleach is what i do. i did that after getting them cut as well. they are glossy tiles, not rough. to me the rough tiles would be very rough on the dragons skin, and like you said the stools would soak into the tile. i dont see traction being a problem. they are not very slippery. i just make sure my dragons nails are clipped giving him better traction and the nails against tile sounds like nails against a chalkboard. i will be post some more pics here and also send them to you.

oh and as far as the tiles getting cold during winter shutdown, i do keep heat over the tanks during shut down periods, i just lower the temps. and i have a spare bedroom that is my "dragon room" and it stays at about 85 degrees even during the winter season.

these are 12"x"12 ceramic tiles, not grouted to the tank. they are just cut to size to the tank and layed in. a typical 40 gallon breeder uses 3 12x12 tiles and 3 tiles 12x5 1/2 inches.

The tiles should not be perfectly smooth, else your dragon won't be able to get traction to move around. A rough finish is good (should be able to feel the texture with your hand but it doens't have to be so rough it hurts to move your hand over it roughly).

If concerns over the tile being too cold, an area of reptile carpet can be put in underneath the dragon when brumating but unless the room temps drop below (or the tile temps) 60F there shouldn't be any problems.
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PHLdyPayne

thought i mentioned this before, the tiles are not perfectly smooth, they are glossed tiles but have some texture to them. my dragons have no problem on them as far as traction.

as far as them getting cold, in my dragon room they do not. but in some rooms they may. i thought think the carpet thing would work, or an undertank heat pad would work as well. i know alot of people dont like the undertank heaters, but they would work fine if on low heat temps.

you have me sold, I have 8 tanks in my garage. the sand is old and they tend to kick up dust all over the garage. I was wondering how you cleaned the poop up do you just get a paper towel and kinda clean it up that way or what? sorry that question was a little strange but I am wondering and do you spray the towel off with water and then wipe off again. I use sand and a fish net to get the poop out the fish net will get all the little fine pieces the a cat scooper wont. I have also picked out a nice white tale. it has texture but it is sealed with a glaze. now I will have to measure all of my tanks to figure out what I need. or did you just give the measurements to the store and they cut what you needed?
thanks peach

never tried the fish net with the sand, thats a good idea. im done with sand, except in one cage i cant put tile in. its a plastic cage, and rounded corners and doesnt have a level bottom, tile wouldnt work. but im keeping that cage set up for my females, since they dig in the sand when they are getting ready to lay. anyways, i just clean the poop up with paper towel or plastic bag, then wipe down the area where it was. i wipe it down with water and very little soap. dont use but very little soap as it probably would harm your dragon if there was too much.

as far as measurements goes, to make sure i got the right measurements, i bought 2 boxes, i did 3 cages and had more than enough, and took it home, layed as many full 12x12 peices as i could in there. then took the measurements of the areas i needed to fill in which were 5 1/2 inches in a 40 gallon breeder. i then took peices back to home depot to have them cut it. i wanted to do it this way to make sure all measurements were correct, cause if they were wrong and they cut it too small theres no way to fix it. do whatever way is easier for you, just be sure measurements are correct.

If you use a porcelain tile they are 99% non-pourus. They will not absorb any liquid. You will still have to clean the tile but it will be alot more sanitary. Porcelain tile do not cost much more than ceramic tile. Also if you use a ruler and score the top side of the tile several times you can snap the ceramic tile with out having to cut them, I would not try to do this withy the porcelain tile. I sell this stuff for a living.

hey thanks for the info ill keep that in mind when i have to buy more tile for other cages. hope everyone else that switches to using tile takes your advice on that. thanks