Reptile & Amphibian Forums

how do you keep your dragon from tracking sand all over his food bowl? Maybe my bowl is too shallow, or because the cage is too small (he's getting upgraded hopefully tomorrow), but he tramps all over his food dragging sand all over it too. I'm concerned he's going to eat this.

It's only been 6 hours or so, and already the sand is making a mess. I am thinking I can elevate the bowl somehow, maybe anchor it on a basking spot or something so he can't just run back and forth over it.

Does anyone else have this problem?
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1 Thoroughbred
1 Mali Uromastyx
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Corn Snake
1 Milk Snake
2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
2 Rabbits
4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)

What kind of food dish are you using? I use the terra cotta saucers made for plant pot bottoms. These work out really good.

It's just a normal bowl found at your average petstore in the rep. sections....nothing fancy about it. I'm not sure how a terra cotta pot would differ, but if you'll explain more in depth, I'd be happy to pick one up tomorrow.
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1 Thoroughbred
1 Mali Uromastyx
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Corn Snake
1 Milk Snake
2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
2 Rabbits
4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)

Invest in a few rolls of paper towels. Sand can and will kill your dragon if he is careless.

but I have just about had it with this board. I really like some of the other boards on this forum, but I'm sorry, you people are NUTS.

It is absolutly ridiculous that you keep your animals on paper towls and think every product on the market is dangerous and terrible. Are you aware that animals don't live on paper towls out in the wild? And yet, somehow they've managed to survive since the beginning on time. I specificially said TO ALL OTHERS, IGNORE to bypass the constant sand comments. I have asked several questions, read lots of websites and looked through many books and I am educated enough to form my own opinion on this matter. If I want to put my animal on sand, he's going to be on sand. If you don't like that, understandable, but I'm not interested in hearing about it anymore.

I asked a question to other sand users (of which I know there are because they have posted their opinions and I've seen several pictures from different posters with very healthy dragons on sand), and I am hoping they will respond with a solution. If there is none, perhaps I will switch to something else. It will not be paper towels though. This animals cage REEKED after only a couple days of being on the cage carpeting. He was walking through his feces and making a real mess of things. That's not healthy for him and it was flat out disgusting.

My mali does not track sand all over his food bowl (he's 6 yrs old by the way and been on sand his entire life). I was just wondering if this is a normal BD problem.

Sorry if this comes off as irritated, I really appreciate the helpful info most of you have given, but some are a bit overboard. I have to wonder what kind of life your lizards are living while on unconfortable paper towels with no water bowls (what's that all about? All animals should have free access to water. I've seen mine drinking from his bowl!), and no decorations for fear of "contamination."

The real world is not a sterile environment. I clean cages with the best of them, but I want my animals to have normal animal lives and have a soft place to sleep at the end of the day.
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1 Thoroughbred
1 Mali Uromastyx
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Corn Snake
1 Milk Snake
2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
2 Rabbits
4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)

Ok, I know you said skip it but I at least had to read it lol. Anyway, what about a bran box. Take about a third of the cage and build a ledge (or cut a hole in the side of a box) and put wheat bran in it. This would give him something to play in or sleep in if he desired while still being able to use a water bowl on the other side (I agree with the water bowl, mine love theirs). I've never done this but I've seen it done and it seemed like a good idea as long as the ledge was deep enough so that the wheat didn't get everywhere, even if it did you'd just have to sweep up the mess.

Sean
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Heart Mountain Herps

I doesn't seem to me that he would do much with a spot of wheat bran, but I'll keep it in mind. It still doesn't fix the hygine problem. Those carpet pads were just gross. There is literally no smell currently. IMHO, that's how it should be. If I can smell it outside the cage, imagine what it must be like to him to be living in it.

I did go ahead and raise the bowl up by using stakable rocks (siliconed together). That seems to have temp. fixed the sand in the bowl issue, so I'll see if that works out. I'll bet a bit part of it is because he's in such a tight space right now that he's using every available inch.
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1 Thoroughbred
1 Mali Uromastyx
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Corn Snake
1 Milk Snake
2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
2 Rabbits
4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)

I actually have a small tank set aside just for feeding my dragons. The other option is to get either the cloth or the plastic food place mats and place it under the bowls. I will do that if I don't have time to feed in the other tank.

Hope that helps,
Shannon

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1 Thoroughbred
1 Mali Uromastyx
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Corn Snake
1 Milk Snake
2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
2 Rabbits
4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)

I've got a section of my tank with tile layed over the sand, and ontop of that i put the food dish. there's yet be any sand in either of my bd's food dishes.
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0.2.0 Bearded Dragons
Nunca & Nexus
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Signature file edited; oversized banner removed. Please update/correct to an acceptable smaller size. Thank you. [phw 9/24/04]

I'm not going to nag you to take your beardie off sand, but I wanted to add my 2 cents about the carpet and paper towels. I use both. My 20 month old male & female are paper trained and only use the paper towels to "go". Very easy clean up there. The baby is on paper towels because it is what is safest for a 10 week old beardie. All of my beardies have a water bowl, even if they just wanna run through it, fine by me. My tanks do not smell, if they happen to "go" on the carpet, I take it out & wash it. I have indoor/outdoor carpet for both tanks and have four pieces for each tank. It was a one time cost of $11 (split with a friend). I don't keep a sterile environment, I keep a clean environment. I agree sand looks great but after working 5 years for an Exotic Veterinary Hospital, I have seen way too many problems to use it myself. Best of luck and have a great day!

It's a matter of absorbancy, comfort, and warmth. I love the BD, but I do not have time to tear apart the cage and wash the padding every single day. Realistically, it's just not going to happen.

If you've read my other posts, you'd know this BD isn't even tame (I just got him), so he'd be pretty darn stressed out if I was catching and putting him in some other container while I fiddled with his cage every day.
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1 Thoroughbred
1 Mali Uromastyx
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Corn Snake
1 Milk Snake
2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
2 Rabbits
4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)

If you don't have the time maybe you shouldn't have the lizard. It is really not that complicated. Paper towels are extremely easy to maintain. Just remove when soiled. Unless you are one of those people who has to have 1000 stupid cage ornaments to make it look pretty. In that case papertowels would be a hassle. By the way, did you know that sand is less absorbant that paper towels? By using sand you are literally creating a farm of bacteria. But all is well I guess if you plan on completely emptying the cage and replacing ALL of the sand every week or so.

That "sand" that they've been living on since the beginning of time, is NOTHING like the sand that is made commercially available. The dirt that these creature live on in the wild is extremely finite. Natural sand/dirt is nothing like the grainy playsand, reptisand, calci-sand, whatever that people buy for their lizards. All commercial sand is either artificially messed around with or is too large in individual grain size to be used safely. Ultimately it is your call. By all means do what you want, I've just seen, heard, and experienced too much tragedy to give it any second thoughts whatsoever.

and I do not have a "thousand decorations" in my animals cages, but they certainly don't live in an environment devoid of everything. They have several hide spots, basking logs and plants. Decorations are just that - decorations. They make the cage look nice AND they provide the animal with a sense of security so he's not just "out there" with no cover to go to if he so chooses.

Let me guess, yours has paper towls, a small water bowl (unless you're the type to deprive your lizard of water), one basking spot that doubles as a hide spot, and a food bowl.

What a boring and dull envioronment for a living creature to live in. I'd rather eat some sand every now and then than live in that kind of existance.

I have plently of time for weekly cleaning, but frankly, I have a life outside of this lizard (including many other pets!) and I will not be attending to his paper towes everytime he choose to poop.
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1 Thoroughbred
1 Mali Uromastyx
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Corn Snake
1 Milk Snake
2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
2 Rabbits
4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)

I beg to differ.

YES Sand is a LOT LOT more work if done correctly!!!

And yes, I do have some "ornaments" as in big pieces of wood and such for him to climb around.

Yes, it would be SO MUCH MORE easy to have papertowls, a foodbowl and not much else in the cage. As a matter of fact, it would be even easier to have a stuffed beardie in the cage.

When I clean the sand I scoop a large amount of sand out with the soiled sand. There is NO contaminated sand left. I have to often refill. So what.

Yes its a LOT more work to do it right. No doubt.

I also have no doubt whatsoever, that my Beardie would much prefer to live in MY cage, then in a empty, papertoweled cage that is convinient for the caretaker.

To each their own, just don' t knock other peoples setup because you like it differently.

It all comes down to doing it RIGHT. Some are more work then others, but there is more then one way to keep them safely and comfortable.
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reps-r-us