Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Playsand is the best overall substrate right?? Yeah people say there is the risk of impaction, but nothing is ever perfect, and there is no way that the beardie will not ever ingest ANY if it is on sand, they just dont ingest enough to hurt themselves right??

"Yeah people say there is the risk of impaction, but nothing is ever perfect,"

I think shelf liner is rather perfect, myself.

But yeah, if you must use a particle substrate playsand is the way to go. Unless your beardie is a baby, then I would certainly recommend paper towels or shelf liner until it's older. A few more experienced breeders get away with using sand for babies, but they know what measures to take to prevent impaction and have lots of experience. I don't think a new beardie owner should risk it, impaction is a serious thing. That's my opinion.

If your beardie is an adult playsand is fine. If you have a way to feed him on a raised surface so it doesn't get kicked into his food dish, even better!
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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)

Shelf line yeah is impaction risk free, but i dont think its very comfortable for the beardie. i wouldnt want to sleep on a hard floor every night. just a thought

LOL. Have you seen how beardies sleep? I don't think comfort is on their mind. Mine don't usually sleep on the floor anyways, they sleep on their logs or rocks.

Something a lot of folks will do and I plan on doing myself is adding a sandbox on one side of the tank for the adults. That way you can satisfy any digging habits they might have. Still wouldn't advise it for babies though.

A LOT of experienced people here use shelf liner, that's how I learned about it, and I guarantee you our beardies are not suffering for it. We would not do anything that would make them unhappy.
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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)

Well i think mine is out of the "critical stage" of its life. She was raised on calci-sand, so i think that playsand will be heave to her. lol

Well, that's good. A lot of pet stores sell them very small, so ya never know. I like to cover those bases anyways, ya know?

To answer your original question, yeah I think any dragon will likely ingest a little sand now and then and it's no big deal, but if they're getting big mouthfulls that's when you have to be careful. That's why I recommend maybe putting the food dish on a raised platform or a placemat or something. When I used sand my dragon would kick it all up in his salads, it was nasty.

Anyways, how big is your dragon?
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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 just saw your other thread about age and size.

I agree it's a bit small for that age, but I agree a lot with what beardiedragon said.

Good luck and congrats on the new friend!
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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 agree w/ u on the raised platform feeding. But wut about crickets?? One guy i talked to said feed it crickets out of its normal cage so that teaches it to enjoy being out of the cage, and then once it gets older go ahead and put the crickets in on the sand due to the dragon being older. Right now she/he is 6 inches long.

6 inches is pretty small. Even if he's older I'd say it qualifies as "baby" sized.

I really don't know what to tell you, when my beardies were young I always had them on paper towels or shelf liner and I didn't have to worry about it. I tried sand once before but when I fed crickets my beardie got huge mouthfuls of it so I changed it. I use shelf liner now and I just feed them right in their cages.

I think taking the beardie out of the enclosure to feed it is fine if he responds to it alright. I've done it with both of mine on more than on occasion. It can be stressful though, every beardie is different and some may react differently to it than others. Especially the first few weeks with your new beardie it really needs to acclimate to it's own enclosure, so taking it out a few times a day may be extra stressful.

Sorry I can't say much else. That's all I can really do is relate my experiences to you and hope they may be helpful in some way. I can't really say what is going to work best for you, because I did things differently.
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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 totally understand. I really just need to get him/her in the cage and feed her/him and see how much sand it grabs up w/ the cricket. If it grabs a mouthful, here come the paper towells, if it just gets a small amount, i'll stay w/ the sand. Sound ok?

Sounds good to me. The other thing to look out for is licking. Some beardies are lickers and will just lick everything they see, which can result in sand swallowing. If your beardie does that you may want to switch to paper towels as well.

Otherwise you're on the right track. Good luck!
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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)

>>Shelf line yeah is impaction risk free, but i dont think its very comfortable for the beardie. i wouldnt want to sleep on a hard floor every night.

I wouldn't want to sleep on sand, either. ;} Luckily, beardies aren't as particular about what they sleep on as we are... though Oolong does seem to enjoy comfy blankets (he nests in them whenever he's out on our couch in the evening). Unfortunately for him, I can't imagine trying to keep a blankie-lined dragon cage clean. ;D

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~Alice

1.0 Bearded Dragon (Oolong)
0.1 ferret (Lil' Guy)
7.4 cats (Angel, Goblin, Hush, Kirin, Sammy, Squee, Toes, Feets, Gypsy, Kana, Raisen)