Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, i'm getting my beardie in a week or too,

i'm setting up the cage (a little early, but i'm excited) and i still don't know what substrate to use. There's so much debate about it. I want one that you can spot-clean, not like newspaper how you have to change it every time it gets dirty. Anyway... i was looking in my pantry and saw a bag of rice, what about rice as a substrate? Is that stupid or could it work?

question 2: Can i feed beardies worms out of the garden?

Thanks in advanced, Jack

please get a book on beardies, if you have two weeks thats plenty of time. and then you can have something there to look at whenever you need help, not looking to the internet. i would not use rice, it swells up when wet and if your beardie eats it it could lead to an impaction. are you getting a baby? if so i would start it on newspaper, or even paper towels, you can just pick up the dirty ones, my beardies always poop on the one end of the tank. when its bigger, or if your getting an adult you can put it on a substrate, i would get something from a pet store, i have heard of mites getting into a collection of animals from home improvement store sand (fla has wild herp mites and they got into the sand) also, i would not feed worms from the garden, i dont know about the nutrition they provide and there could be pestisides you may not even know about, i am now growing my own mealworms, and its not to hard if you just want an easy source of food at home, if its because you want to save $ then maybe you could wait to get a beardie, they do cost a bit to set up and keep, if you spend the $ to feed and house them right you can save $ on vet bills latter!
good luck!
(if i sounded mean at all i sooo dont mean to, i just would love to see everyones herps be happy and healthy)