Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is everyone here using for substrate and why?
For hatchlings...juveniles...adults?

Well,

For my hatchlings I put shelf paper in the bottom of the enclosure to make it easier to clean. Also the white paper makes it easier to look at the fecals to make sure they are normal.

Juvies get newspaper for ease of cleaning. I also can wet the newspaper down to provide the humidity when needed.

My adults have a rather large enclosure. half of it has green outdoor carbet. This I can remove and clean. I have a couple pieces cut so I can always have a clean replacement ready. The other half of the enclosure is 50% play sand and 50% Potting soil (NO FERTILIZER in the soil). This mix is also a great egg laying medium as long as is is kept moist.

Hope this helps you out.
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Ken
If you kill it, You better be willing to eat it!

2 Bearded Dragons
1 Iguana
4 Oscars
2 Dogs
2 Children

to keep babies on shelf liner or paper towels. Avoid anything particulate like sand.

after they've reached the 10-12" mark, screened play sand may be used in place of the shelf liner. do not use vita-sand, calci-sand, walnut chips, wood-chips, bark, or any other specialist reptile bedding.
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Ross

0.1 Bearded Dragon (Fuego, spent the last 10 months thinking she was a he!)
2.1 Roommates (require more cleaning up after than the dragon)

When my dragon was small (6" I had him on paper towels, when he was around 10-12" I switched to shelf liner.
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0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Eddie)
2.0.0 Dogs (Black German Shepherd-Nicholas, Black Lab-Cooper)
1.1.0 Budgies (Kia and Simon)
0.0.1 ?Fiddler Crab (Crusty)
0.0.25 Various Fishies (Freshwater)
2.1.0 Hubby and kids (Boy and a Girl)

Yep, I agree with these guys. Babies have a tendency (just like humans) to taste everything. So papertowels are good, and they change quickly and easily. As they get a little bigger, I couldnt keep the papertowels down, they were just ripping them up digging in them, so I switched to newspaper. Then finally, after about 6-8 months switched to screened/washed playsand, its cheap and easy to clean also.
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imaturtlefanwww.enchantingexotics.com

With all the beardies we rescue, we've found it the easiest and safest to use the padded, non slip shelf liner. It cleans up easy and doesn't harbor parasites like sand can.

~Veronica
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Beautiful Dragons

I like non-adhesive shelf liner for my young and adult beardie. It's so simple and easy to clean. I tried sand for my adult but he liked to lick, lick, lick!
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Amanda
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)

0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
0.0.1 tarantula (Otto)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)