Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So basically for baby or younger beardies use just paper towels for the substrate until they are older. correct? any comments are appreciated.

yea either paper towels or shelf liner because anything that could be ingested is not recommended for baby bds because they lick everything and can become impacted if there kept on easily ingested substrate
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1.0 Beardies (Spike)
0.0.2 Corn Snakes
1.0 Chineese Rat Snake (Chino)
2.3 Kenyan Sand Boas
1.0 Eastern Chain King (Spot)
1.0 King Rat Snake
1.0 Tarantula

RIP Rusty(BD)....u were my favorite little girl

thats wut i use, and although looks arent that great, it's easy and completly safe. only thing about it, is that crix like to hide under it, so u gotta scare 'em out sumtimes.
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My baby Beardie!(aka the Fugative)

I have over 35 dragons and I have raised many many dragons from hatchlings. I can tell you that Dachiu, Satyrday, and I www.AlphaDragonZ.com raise all our hatchlings on sand. Paper towels and newspaper are just places for crickets to hide. You will constantly find yourself trying to get crickets out from under them. Also you should feed your baby beardy a minimum of 3 times a day not two times a day. Always check the information you are gathering not everybody is experienced in certain areas to give good advice.
-Randy
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AlphaDragonZ
www.AlphaDragonZ.com

I do agree with alphadragon.

The thing is, everybody does things differently and everybody thinks their way is the best way. That's why researching is SO important so you can make the choices that you feel are best. He is right in that there are a lot of people out there who don't have the experience, but like to give advice anyways. You have to learn for yourself so you can sort through those.

Even though I'm of the mind not to use sand for babies, that doesn't mean it won't work. I've just seen impaction in babies before from sand, so I don't like to take the risk. I tried sand with my first beardie and he was the type to take huge mouthfuls of it when he hunted crickets, and I saw some come out in his feces, so I didn't like that. I used paper towels for a while, and even though it was a pain when those crickets would hide under them, I was always right there watching to shoo them back out. Eventually I changed to shelf-liner and now I don't have that problem at all.

I did a lot of research and tried a few different things and settled on what I found was best for me and my dragons. That is what you need to do as well. What might be best for me may not be best for everyone, just like what works best for others (usually sand) wasn't best for me.
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Amanda
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

forgot to add, in regards to sand for babies. Like alphadragon and the Diachu's lot of breeders recommend it and have no problems. Then again lots of breeders have recommended to NEVER use sand on babies.

Again that is just to stress the importance of doing your own research and making the choices you think are right. I choose to err on the side of caution, because like I said I tried sand and I known my beardie was swallowing it. If you know your options and know your beardie, you will be able to tell what will work best.

btw, sorry I snapped last night in response to your other post. I don't like being talked to in caps lock, it's seen as yelling and rude. I'm over it though, and I shouldn't have said I don't care what you do. That's no way to help someone, and it's not true because I DO care about every animal and it's well being, even if it's not my pet. So, sorry again.
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Amanda
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

I would never reccomend paper towels. if your worried about impaction then you can use gentle touch. e-mail me. I'll help u a little more. littleherpeculturist@yahoo.com
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sincerely,
jonathan
JDDK Reptiles www.jddkreptiles.com

My babies are kept in a 20 gal long with shelf liner. When they outgrow that tank I try them out with washed and sifted play sand in a 40 gal breeder or 60 gal. I do watch them very carefully the first 2 weeks though to see if they can take the change and if not they go into a 60 gal with shelf liner that I TRY TO KEEP AS A SPARE EMPTY TANK FOR WHEN NEEDED. At the moment there is a alligator lizzard from outside that I am nursing back to health and mean to release back into the wild. Which means disinfecting again. Oh well that is what I get for interfering with mother nature.

I use shelf liner too. I don't have to worry about imaction and it is MUCH easier to clean. I used to use sand and it always seemed dirty to me. Shelf liner is easy to clean and cheap to replace. Plus crickets can't hide under it.
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Stacey