Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Aspen shavings for leos. Good or bad? I had to clean their cage today and as a last resort I used aspen shavings. I can tell that they are unsure of it but if it isn't going to hurt them then I might leave it in for a while until I get a chance to clean them out again. Obviously i'm worried about impaction but don't worry, they won't eat it, they'll be eating mealworms out of a glass dish. Thank you for any info.

-Patrick

You know I have never heard of anyone using aspen for LG's I started using it for all my snakes and thus far no problems but I would not use it for my LG's. I use regular old reptile cage carpet for them
Foot Hill Reptiles

It is not uncommon for a leopard gecko to eat its substrate in search of nutrients possibly lacking in its diet. Impaction is normally a result of that instead of eating a pinch of bedding with every cricket(atleast in my experience). Some geckos will live on just about anything without a problem and some try to hurt themselves anyway possible. Paper towels work great in between the pet shop runs

Hey. Newspaper works great too and is cheap if you already get a paper anyway. Might make they're feet dirty but I rarely see the bottoms of my geckos' feet anyway. It's Earth Day. So we should all do some recycling anyway!

I use newspaper for all my snakes and it works great. Some of those green plastic outdoor carpets can be scratchy! I had a ball python once that developed a serious skin irritation from one and I've never used outdoor carpet ever since.

For my Leos I like to use sand. I've used Calci-Sand for years and never had any problem. The price varies depending on where you get it. I mail order mine from Dr. Foster and Smith. They always have a better price than anyone else I've come across.