Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased some of this sand because I had heard so many bad things about calcisand on this site. Time and time again, I read that Home Depot play sand was the best. The only play sand that they carried was a 50LB bag of Quikrete play sand. We put it in Velcro's cage today and it is very "pebbly". Is it supposed to be like this? What should I do? I am worried that my 5 month old might get impacted.

Please respond as soon as possible...

No that's not the one. The one I get at home depot comes in a clear bag with orange and green writting and has a picture of a kid in a snad box on it. It's called Kiddies Fun washed, dried play sand.
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Mystical Dragons

Matt,

Yep, that is what the bag says.. but it wasn't a tube, it was a clear plastic bag that had Kiddie Fun and had some kids on the front of it. The end of the bag says quikrete. It isn't white tropical sand.

Thanks,
Dawn

Yes mine does have pictures of other quickrete products on the back bottom of the bag as well, it is play sand though. You got the right one. It's suggested that you run the sand through a screen to catch any of the pebbles that might be in the bag. I use to get an old window screen and lay it on top of the tank and slowly pour it through the screen. Never had many pebbles in it at all. I don't use it much any more just for egg laying bins. Since you poured it in the tank already maybe just get a strainer and cup it through a strainer to get the big pieces out.
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Mystical Dragons

I have a friend that has a 2 & 1/2 year old bearded and he says that my 5 month old is too young to be on anything but calci sand. He said that because the pieces of play sand are sharper, it is more dangerous for my baby.

I have conflicting messages!!!

What is your opinion?

I decided not to bother with any sort of sand for my bearded dragon. TO much trouble lugging 50 pound bags from my car into my house then dumping enough into my large beardie tank to leave a good layer on teh bottom..and of course the mess cleanup would become...I decided to use plastic tablecloth over a thin layer of paper towel as a substrate. The plastic tablecloth is much much easier to clean, and the papertowel underneath absorbs any waste that may leak through the table cloth (through little claw holes etc). I replace the plastic tablecloth once a month to ensure there is no bacteria build up anywhere. I find this is alot easier to use, has no risk of impaction, I don't have to sift sand to get pepples out or lug that weight around.

Mattman here uses shelf liner which gave me the ideal to get plastic table cloth (since I couldn't find any 2' wide shelf liner and didn't want use two pieces overlapping). Both come in many colours and patterns which gives a chance in finding something that matches your decor.

The sand that most people recomend from Home Depo is their tropical play sand. It is white, and very fine and silica free It is more expensive than the other play sand, but there are no pebbles and it is much safer.

Sky

I called my local Home Depot and they don't carry either of the Kiddies Fun washed playsand or the Tropical playsand, they said all they have is the All Purpose playsand wich is that real pebbly junk. I am curious could I use regular beach sand? There is a place here in town that sells Beach sand and I was thinking if I could get that and say put it in the oven on a cookie sheet and bake it at 400 degrees for a half hour or so to kill any bacteria would that work? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I successfully use sandblasting sand from Home Depot. Sandblasting sand is a uniform consistency and I have rasied a clutch of hatchlings on it with no problems, along with their mother which I have had for over two years. The sand comes in a brown paper-bag type covering, and is very cheap for 50 lb bags.

I tried the playsand but got similar results as you. It's a pain to sift so much sand to get rid of the larger grains.