Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took Ocho to the vet this morning for a fecal, and in the lobby was a man with a six month old beardie looking sick as a dog. He said it was his son's lizard, and it's been on Calci-Sand, and now it's impacted. He said he had warned his son before about the stuff, and even the pet store (!) told him that it was bad, but his son still insisted on using it! Now the poor lizard is sick and the son wasn't even home to take care of it, he had left it w/ his dad while he went out of town.

Anyways, if the lizard lives he said the first thing he was gonna do was get the sand out of there and put it on paper towels. He's paying the vet bills so he doesn't care if his son doesn't like it or not. This guy was taking better care of the thing than it's owner!

It makes me so upset to know that there are people out there who are aware of the risks and still take that chance. Why? Because it looks good and comes in different colors? Animals' lives are being put in danger every day and this stuff is still on the shelves!
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1.0.1 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

Your message got me moving. I had been planing to get rid of the Calci-sand and this message was the last straw. Now I got shelf liner in my old 60 gal. to match my 2 new 40 Gals. that already had it.
Thanx

That's awesome. Your beardies will thank you, and when you see how easy the shelf-liner is to keep clean, you'll thank yourself!
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1.0.1 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

just noticed you said you had been using it. I tell ya, it's the best, I'll never go back to using anything else if I don't have to.
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1.0.1 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

What type of shelf liner are you using? How much does it cost and where can I find it? Thank you much in advance!

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Daniel Blough
D&D Dragons
dmblough@comcast.net

The brand is called Duck. You can find it at walmart for $5 a roll. Get the non-adhesive kind, it's rubber.
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1.0.1 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

NP
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Daniel Blough
D&D Dragons
dmblough@comcast.net

washed play-sand can be used instead of calci-sand if sand is the only way the son will go. If they really want colours, I am sure you can die the play-sand with any non toxic food die (I wouldn't use vegetible dies, might just encourage the dragons to eat it cause it smells like greens).

Personally, I decided against the washed play sand, for practical reasons. They come in 50 pound bags and I live alone. I can manage lifting that much weight around but it will be a pain and with my luck, the bottom willl give out, or tear on the lip of my trunk, or stairs or whatever, so I will have 50 pounds of sand all over my driveway or basement, or stairs. Even if that doesn't happen, then its the hassel of vacuuming it out of the cage, having it flung all over by my dragon...you get the picture. I decided to use the plastic table cloths instead. I put a few layers of paper towel underneat as I found the dragons little claws punch holes through the tablecloth after awhile and the papertowels will obsorb any leakage. Also gives him a bit more padding. She sesems to like it, stomps around all over her cage like a mini Godzilla.