Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well I have had my first and last scare over sand. Betty, who has been on Calci sand for 3 years now had to go to the vet last week. I don't know if the impaction was caused by the sand and I really don't care, the people who I consider my subject matter experts Marcia McGuiness(GGG), Rob Jenkins (Herptopia.com), and Ross Payan at (LeosAnonymous)are against its use because of the risks, not only that but it holds the bacteria in, making for an unsanitary environment. Enough said about that..
I really like the natural look though. I am designing some custom cages for my leos. I want to use slate tile, has anyone had any success with this? How well does it conduct the heat, and how do you prevent overheating and turning your tile into a big heatrock?

Thanks for the help in advance

Tim
-----
LEOs: 3.11.0
1.3 High Yellows (Barney and Betty);1.3 Hypo Tangerines(Bam-bam and Pebbles); 1.1 Rescued Normals (Shleprock) 0.4Tremper Albinos (No names yet), Lookin for a good male Albino breeder
BEARDIES 1.0.0
Snow and Yellow (Fred)

Slate does in fact work really well. I got really, really lucky and found a construction site by me where they were redoing a slate roof, so I managed to get a box full of slate tiles from the dumpster. They were nice and flat and conducted heat really well. To prevent overheating with slate, just keep the UTH on a dimmer and turn it down if it gets too hot.

I've also been told that ceramic tiles will work well too, and it's a heck of a lot easier to find flat ceramic tiles than it is flat sheets of slate.

h
-----
1.3 Leopard Gecko's
1.0 mali uromastyx

I agree that sand looks good, but I've always been afraid of it so I've never used it. I find slate and/or tiles are excellent at holding heat and are very attractive as well. I love them. Very little maintenance too - I just have to keep a little piece of thin plastic under the paper towel in the pooping area to keep that section of the tile clean. I've never had any problems with overheating. You only have to make the normal occaisional temp adjustments to the UTH and bulb wattages in the lamp depending on the season/weather.