Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We just switched our 4month old beardie from carpet to sand last night. We used the zoo med repti-sand. I noticed he was going around picking up pieces with his tongue last night. I worry about impaction. I suspect he is curious with his new habitat, but can this hurt him?

if im thinking of the right thing, repti-sand grains are fairly large. so yes, this isprobably not a good thing
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proud mama to:
1.0.0 ball python (mr snake),0.0.1 albino florida kingsnake (CK),1.0.0 leopard gecko (sebastian),0.1.0 colombian rainbow boa (luce),1.1.0 bearded dragon (kaipo and dulce), 1.1.0 colombian redtailed boas (adam and eve)

do you think that straining it would work? i know that there are sands that are digestable. Do you know what it's called?

No, there is no digestable sand, that is just a lie to get people to buy expensive Calci-sand, which is very dangerous for beardies. Normal sifted playsand works fine, but most people only use it for adult beardies, and keep babies on safer substrate.
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Oh, my gosh!!! I am very worried now. My beardie is approximately 10 inches from snout to tip of tail and I am scared that him being in the sand is bad for him...Do you recommend that we get him out of the sand once again?

If so, I will do it tonight!!

thats probably a good idea. id say just watch him carefully in the next few days for any signs of digestive problems (not pooping, not wanting to eat, etc). i dont know much about imapctation, but generally if sand is going to be used, other forum suggest using only very fine playsand and only for larger beardies.
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proud mama to:
1.0.0 ball python (mr snake),0.0.1 albino florida kingsnake (CK),1.0.0 leopard gecko (sebastian),0.1.0 colombian rainbow boa (luce),1.1.0 bearded dragon (kaipo and dulce), 1.1.0 colombian redtailed boas (adam and eve)

I agree. Get him off the sand immediately. Dragons are naturally curious, but if they're tasting sand more than once than the sand should be removed. Are you dusting his crickets with calcium and vitamin d3? If the repti-sand is like the calci-sand, it is calcium carbonate based and if he's eating it, he might be lacking in calcium and other minerals. Calcium carbonate sand dissolves in a very low pH, but very slowly, by that time, a bearded dragon would have died from impaction. Very very very fine sand can be used. There's a brand you can use called Southdown Carribean Play sand that might be found at your Home Depot, it's basically the same thing as calci-sand, but much much finer and much less expensive, about five dollars for fifty pounds.

i was gonna mention the possible calcium deficiency, but i didnt wanna start going into stuff iw asnt too sure about. thanks
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proud mama to:
1.0.0 ball python (mr snake),0.0.1 albino florida kingsnake (CK),1.0.0 leopard gecko (sebastian),0.1.0 colombian rainbow boa (luce),1.1.0 bearded dragon (kaipo and dulce), 1.1.0 colombian redtailed boas (adam and eve)

Yep, we dust his crix every other day. He is still eating a sizable portion of them and not too many greens yet. I can't say that he ate much sand, only that I saw him for the first 1/2 hour being put in that he put his tongue out maybe a half dozen times....i am really confused about all of this. A friend of mine said that he had his beardies on repti-sand since they were babies and had no problem. This is my son's beardie and I don't want him to be hurt in any way...The sand is pretty fine, but there are little clumps. Could we use it if we sifted all of the larger bits out? I would hate to waste the almost $40.00 that I paid for the sand, but will if you think that it will harm Velcro.

Thanks!

What do wild bearded dragons do when they encounter sand?
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id imagine the sand they encounter in the wild is more like playsand than calcisand.

didnt someone say awhile back that the terrain in australia is actually hard, not sandy? i could easily be wrong about this though...
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proud mama to:
1.0.0 ball python (mr snake),0.0.1 albino florida kingsnake (CK),1.0.0 leopard gecko (sebastian),0.1.0 colombian rainbow boa (luce),1.1.0 bearded dragon (kaipo and dulce), 1.1.0 colombian redtailed boas (adam and eve)

in nature, some are going to have to die and thats just part of natural selection and evolution. but none of us want that happening to out pets
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proud mama to:
1.0.0 ball python (mr snake),0.0.1 albino florida kingsnake (CK),1.0.0 leopard gecko (sebastian),0.1.0 colombian rainbow boa (luce),1.1.0 bearded dragon (kaipo and dulce), 1.1.0 colombian redtailed boas (adam and eve)

The Australian deserts are mostly packed dirt and soil, not true sand like you'd find on the beach or in the Saharan desert. There is a lot of that red, crumbly dirt in inland Australia. Wild dragons don't live on Repti-sand, or playsand for that matter.

That being said, I switched my dragon to sand when he was roughly 12 inches long. Before that he was on paper towels. I've never had a problem with impaction. I buy playsand, the kind that kids would have in their sandboxes. At 10 inches long, your dragon might be big enough to keep on playsand, but I would ditch the Repti-sand if it were my dragon.

impactation is something that *can* happen, not something guaranteed. certainly some people will use calc- or repti sand and never have a problem. buuuuuut it increases the possibility of problems. your beardie might have just been checking out the new stuff and will never digest any of it again, but its hard to be certain and if hes fed live crickets on the stuff, he may easily down some while hunting. id say its not really worth the risk that the beardie might have problems resulting from the sand. maybe you can find some other use for it if you have other reptiles...or maybe for potting?
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proud mama to:
1.0.0 ball python (mr snake),0.0.1 albino florida kingsnake (CK),1.0.0 leopard gecko (sebastian),0.1.0 colombian rainbow boa (luce),1.1.0 bearded dragon (kaipo and dulce), 1.1.0 colombian redtailed boas (adam and eve)

I agee...I will find use for it...but my hubby is going to pitch a fit for the waste of money. You recommend the fine playsand then?

i personally use paper towels (what can i say, im cheap) because one beardie is tiny, and the other is about 13 inches. this way there is zero risk of impactation from substrate. but i am considering putting the larger one on playsand.

youll find some difference of opinion here as to whether sand is ever ok. but the general consensus seems to be that if youre going to use sand, use playsand. a lot of people here have had no problems with it. also, what some people do is have the cage half paper towel or repticarpet, and half playsand. i think they usually feed the beardies on the non-asnd portion. scroll through some old posts, there's a constant discussion of the issue
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proud mama to:
1.0.0 ball python (mr snake),0.0.1 albino florida kingsnake (CK),1.0.0 leopard gecko (sebastian),0.1.0 colombian rainbow boa (luce),1.1.0 bearded dragon (kaipo and dulce), 1.1.0 colombian redtailed boas (adam and eve)

The repti-sand can still be used when your bearded dragon gets older. I'd still sift the sand through a window screen since you mentioned there are some large grains. I'd store it until your bearded dragon gets larger.

It takes a while for a bearded dragon to develop enough coordination. My baby bearded dragons miss their crickets all the time, sometimes, ending with paper towel in their mouth.

I must say I hate paper towels, especially since I feed in their tank. Someone mentioned using tray liner from Wal-Mart and I am using that now. It is great and can be spot cleaned.

As far as bearded dragons living on sand in the wild, there's alot more that we cannot replicate in captivity. One is diet. This is personal opinion that naturally small amounts of sand can be passed through the system, but that's assuming your dragon is at optimal health with an excellent diet. The amounts of insects and vegetable matter we offer in captivity cannot be compared to nature. As they get older they feed on more vegetation which makes it easier to move things out of their system along with their added size, but at a young age, this isn't always the case.

I would also like to add that there's two type of play sand. The majority of play sand is a silica based. This is the kind usually found in sandboxes, etc. However, you have to be careful with the very fine particles as they are known to cause respiratory problems in humans. That is the main difference between play sand and regular silica sand. It's supposedly washed and sifted. I'd still sift it and give it a good wash to get rid of the fine particles.

THe second kind that's not as readily available is the "Southdown" play sand which is calcium carbonate based and very very fine. In the reef community, it is known as sugar sized so you can get the idea of how fine it is. This is one of the more ideal sands. It is very fine and does not cause respiratory illnesses.

This thread is timely for me because the breeder that I bought 1 dragon from raises their animals outside in Arizona and she told me to keep them on sand because it is natural and they will eat it to get extra calcium when they need it. I started to ask where the calcium would come from in sand but perhaps the sand in Arizona is calcium based, I don't know. I just preferred to use something that I could wash a couple times a week or throw away. After reading about the calcium sand that is available I think that must be what she was talking about, How is sand for cleanliness and odor? I notice an odor in the cage after a few days even with constant removal of all droppings, I am using 2 peices of cage carpet and rotating them every couple of days but I may go to daily changing of a craft paper.
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I haven't used sand for my bearded dragons yet for a couple different reasons. One of it is that as babies and juveniles I mist twice a day and when wet the sand tends to clump. I use the tray liners and I'm loving it.

As far as calcium, for years, reefers have thought that using calcium carbonate sand will help stabilize the water's pH. This has pretty much been proven ineffectively, because in order for the calcium to dissolve like that, the aquarium must have a very low pH. By that time, most inhabitants would have long died.

After chemical reactions, very little calcium is usable. Most of it becomes precipatate.

I personally don't feel sand is digestible. Very very little is digested and the overwhelming majority has to pass out through the system somehow or become impacted. There are certain places in the US with natural calcium carbonate sands, but most are available in the tropics.

This is my guess, but if the grain size is large or too much sand is consumed, a small amount, much less than 1% can dissolve, but the rest will become impacted unless it can pass through the system.

Thanks for your advice everyone!!!! Looks like I have some work to do tonight!!!