Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Reptile Sand with Calcium or Reptile Carpet, which is better? I personally think the sand is better b/c it absorbs heat, easy to clean, allows Beardies to burrow (somthing they do in the wild), and theres so many more advantages to it. The reptile carpet, in my opinion is harder to clean because you have to take it out often (like every other day since theres wastes from the crickets and the beardie), replace the piece you took out because you have to clean and dry the other. I could go on and on. But I work at a pet store. Put two and two together. I want the best for these reptiles and I don't want customers thinking that the carpet is ok and then they won't clean the cage when nessasary even though cleanliness is stressed.

Please, I would love to hear opinions.

Thankyou!

Elise

and paper towels for my big guy....

I find the carpet is not bad to clean at all... actually easier... all I do is pick up the stool with a paper towel... then scrub down the area it was on with a zoo med disinfectant... and then scrub that same area down with water...

take me about 3 min to do it all...

and once a week I give the whole carpet a cleaning...

I find its a lot easier and cleaner for me to use... and a lot easier to keep track of the stool, loose crickets... you dont have to worry bout impaction and anything else...

but thats just my opinion and what I find wasier to use...

Repti sand with cal is not good at all. It can cause impaction in dragons. Washed playsand is better (and a whole lot cheaper). Reptile carpet seems to me alot of work as well when paper towels works better and is again, cheaper. What I use though, is plastic tablecloth. It's easy to clean (just pick up the poo, wash the spot with mild disinfectant soap and dry the spot, takes barely a minute). The plastic table cloth also comes in a variety of colours and patterns, so gives a nice look to your cage.

Mattman uses non slip shelf liner which he recommends highly. I haven't found any wide enough to cover the floor of my cage without cutting two pieces.
The plactic tablecloth is more than wide enough and I paid less than $20 for a roll 100' long by 3' wide

Ok, I've done some more research and washed play sand is good, that calcium sand is . . . bad. With the Carpet, the only thing I'm worried about is the num-nuts that sometimes come and buy the animals. I know know know that they won't put in effort to clean the cage on a daily basis, some will, but 90% won't. And even if you talk to them and try to get them to go home and do research before buying the animal they just don't care to listen. For example, I HATE that we sell iguanas because people think "hmmm the lizard is cheap, the setup will be too".

I have a 55 gallon...About 2ft of the tank near the basking spot I have playsand to hold the heat in...Then on the other 2 ft I have reptile carpet....When pogo is feeding (he isn't eating well right now) I put him on the carpeted side and throw the crix in so he doesn't eat the sand...Usually this works very well....I have heard that cali-sand isn't good though...I would go with washed playsand, carpet or the liners and papertowels mentioned in this forum from others.....

I use the sand for all the reason that you said and it make the dragons look and feel more like they are in the wild.

Brandon
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0.1.0 bearded dagons(crisis)
0.1.0 dogs (Sassy)

I use sand. I like the more natural look, think it helps stimulate more natural behavior.