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I am taking a survey for my leopard gecko tank and I wanted to know what majority of you guys use as your substrate. I want to know about carpetting, slate slabs, gravel, calcium sand, playsand, and any other things you people use as a substrate. If you are biast against something please say so and include why. I am taking any ideas and I also love natural looking substrates! please help

i use reptile carpet because it is easy to clean and reuseable.. I also think it makes the tank look fairly clean also. Just my opinion

kyle

I just got my little leo this weekend (and it's my first reptile), so take this with whatever value you want. I'm obviously not able to give you personal experience stories, but this is what I use (and plan to use):

I'm using paper towels now. She's only 2 months old, and the breeder told me to keep her on paper towels until she's 6 months old, then to use sand. He's been breeding for years and has never had a problem with Repti-Sand. Another breeder told me to use regular play sand from home depot because it was cheap and that I could use that anytime.

I'm going with the paper towels and then repti-sand after that. Mostly for appearance. Although if I can find slate, I'd love that instead of sand and will go that route if possible.

Blaine

np

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Phelsuma Madagascariensis Grandis, Phelsuma Laticauda, Stenodactylus Petrii, Rhacodactylus Ciliatus, Eublepharis Macularius, Anolis Carolinensis, Agalychnis Callidryas, Hyla Cinerea, Mantella Madagascariensis, Dendrobates Azureus, Mantella AurienticaMy Email

Well the problem i have noticed with reptile carpeting is that my gecko's claws get hung in it and had problems with them getting teeth hung when biting at food. ReptiSand for adults only to lessen chances of impactions. But personally I started using a rubberized shelf liner from walmart. Its tan so colors not to bad and easily washed dried and reused. Used this for a couple of years and haven't seen any problems
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0.0.2 Res
0.0.1 Reeves
1.1.2 Leopard Geckos

i have a 5 month old leo and i use brown paper towels as substrate. i would use regular paper towels, but i don't want the ground 2 look white...i want it to look like dirt

also, sand can cause impaction - chances are higher when they are younger.

i also hear slate is a pretty good substrate, although i've never used it myself.

[aimee]
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1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

n/p

np

>>I am taking a survey for my leopard gecko tank and I wanted to know what majority of you guys use as your substrate. I want to know about carpetting, slate slabs, gravel, calcium sand, playsand, and any other things you people use as a substrate. If you are biast against something please say so and include why. I am taking any ideas and I also love natural looking substrates! please help
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-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

Ball Pythons, Red Striped Leos, W.Hognose and Screaming AFT's

Nothing in my rubbermaid containers and a felt like indoor/outdoor carpet in my larger enclosures.
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Steven
Royal Gold Reptiles
Offspring available now from LV Patternless Albino stock for '03 and '04.
Working towards Bell Patternless Albinos for '05.

There is an ongoing debate about what to use for substrate. I currently use paper towels because they are cheap and easy to clean. I would also be willing to use unprinted newspaper or slate, but for now paper towels are the most convenient. Sometimes I have to tape them down to keep the crickets from getting underneath them, but I'm working on a better solution.

Though I am very new to keeping reptiles, I have done a great deal of research on substrates as well as talked to a vet. It is best not to use any kind of loose substrate at -any- age for the gecko. It is much more risky when they are young, but the risk still remains when they get older. It is an unnecessary risk, since leopard geckos do not naturally live on sand anyway. Calcium sand claims to be digestible, but that simply isn't true, and since it has calcium in it, it promps the geckos to eat it. Play sand has finer grains but can still line the wall of the intestinal tract and eventually cause impaction.

Even if you don't see your gecko eating the sand, it could happen, and impaction is very painful and often deadly, as I'm sure you've heard before. It just isn't worth the risk when you take no risk at all with papertowels, newspaper, or slate. I've even seen people use concrete before, which is very heavy, but also works well and looks fairly nice.

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4.5 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Marbled Gecko
1.1 Red Eared Sliders
0.2 Siamese Mice

Adults: Bone-aid
Babies: Paper Towels

No leo should ever be kept on ground walnut shells e.g. "Desert Litter" as it usually causes a painful death. No leo under 6" should be kept on any granular substrate. All graular substrate have some risk of impaction no matter what the age of your leo.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

i use vinyl,that i can get cheap at the fabric store, in the bigger tanks.. and i use papertowel and tile in the 10 gallon tanks.

np
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Sohni
Northern California

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.1 Rubber Boas
1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Hermann's Tortoise
plus my kids' herps:
0.0.1 California King Snake
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa
0.1 Leopard Gecko

Its great to see (most) people are using safer substrates! When I first came to this forum it was pretty different. I use paper towels and slate, I prefer slate because one of my leos swallowed a peice of paper towel before, luckily it came out fine.
Adam
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My pic gallery

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4.5 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Marbled Gecko
1.1 Red Eared Sliders
0.2 Siamese Mice

n/p
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2.2.1 Leopard Geckos (2)shct, (1) normal, (1) tang. rainwater albino, (1) tang
0.0.1 Giant Waxy Monkey tree Frog
2.1.0 Whites Tree Frogs
1.0.0 Huge Black Cat
0.1.0 Cocker Spaniel
0.1.0 Brittany
0.0.1 Brother

n/p
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas

n/p
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas

i was using calci-snad but from now on i am stivking to paper towels much easier to clean and detect when they are dirty and NO IMPACTION

np
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-Bryan

I like them because they are completely digestable if accidentally swallowed. They look a little more natural than paper towels. They're cheap and absorbant. They also allow my geckos to dig (I have cork bark hides over my UTH and the geckos dig the pellets out under the hides until they achieve their prefered temperature.

One big drawback is that they mold rapidly if they get wet and they make a big mess of the water bowl if one falls or is kicked in.

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>>I am taking a survey for my leopard gecko tank and I wanted to know what majority of you guys use as your substrate. I want to know about carpetting, slate slabs, gravel, calcium sand, playsand, and any other things you people use as a substrate. If you are biast against something please say so and include why. I am taking any ideas and I also love natural looking substrates! please help
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~~~Amy~~~
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1.0 hypo tang-Pablo 0.1 normal-Valentine
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