I myself have tried 6 different substrates so far. When i got sidney, the tank had a combination of calcium sand and bark chips (I know, I just didn't know what I was doing). When I realized who dangerous that was, especially since that was when I was feeding him crickets in his tank, I went out and bought some rabbit pellets and tried them out. They looked un natural, and the whole upstairs smelled like petshop, not to mention my allergies were killing me. So then I was going to buy repti carpet, but instead I got about $60 worth of zoo med's reptisand. My vet advised me against using sand, so I put sidney on repticarpet. Then sidney had coccidia, so I had him on paper towels over the summer. Then back to repticarpet, and now playsand. Now I'm thinking about making another switch...shelf liner. But I was thinking, have any of us actually ever had an impaction problem with adult beardeds on sand? If you're not feeding him/her in their tank? From all that I've read and seen, most big commercial breeders use some sort of sand, and most have never had a problem. I still might put him on shelf liner though, just because i like to try out all my options, and he's going to need a substrate switch soon anyways (by january I think). By the way, is "caribean playsand" the stuff I'm supposed to use, or is there a different kind of sand?
I was just thinking about all the different substrates people use. I remember about a year ago the big thing was bran. Everyone was trying it out. Of course, bran had disadvantages. Now it seems like everyone's doing the shelf liner thing (which is much better than bran because it's more sanitary). What do you think will be next?
