Reptile & Amphibian Forums

thanks

I use carpet on the collers side of the cage with the food and water and on the hotter side with the basking area I have sifted desert sand. To make sure sand doesn't get all over the carpeted area I seperated it with a 2X4 Hope this helps.

P.S. - My beardie is huge, smaller beardies can and may be impacted my accedentaly eating some sand, although I have not had that problem.

There are many different choices for bearded dragon substrate.

First of all, it depends on the size of your dragon. For dragons under one year it is best they are kept on a substrate they cannot ingest. Although its not pretty, paper towels or newspaper works very well for the first year. Tile works as well and looks nicer. You can also use the fake-tile stuff people put on their kitchen floors (i cant remember the name) it comes in big rolls, is easy to clean and can be cut to fit.

Once your beardie is an adult you have some other choices. Some people like the natural look of sand. Sand has its ups and downs, it can cause impactions, although the risk is considerably less with adult dragons. It is hard to keep clean and should be completely changed once a week because even if you remove fecal matter the bacteria will be in the surrounding sand, and therefore in contact with your beardie. If you dont mind this extra work then sand may work for you. It is cheap, use fine grain, washed and screened playsand from HOme Depot. It costs about 3$ for a 50lb bag. Do not use any sand sold for reptiles that claims to be "digestible" because its not.

I use carpet for my adult beardie, its very cheap, at home depot i got a HUGE piece (12 ft by 2 ft) fr 5$. The problem with cage carpet is getting the fecal smell out. I have several pieces cut to fit my cage and when its time to clean it, i put a new piece in and scrub scrub scrub the old piece, then leave it out to dry.

I have also heard of people using non-adhesive shelf liner, but i have never done this so i cannot elaborate.

Hope this helps!
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

Yes, you are correct, the can.

But the question is why?

Its all about support (husbandry). If a beardie of any size is getting compacted its not about the substrate. A healthy beardie could eat rocks, one in bad health couldn't.

andrew

That's why they don't get impacted in the wild. Their needs are met in a way that they are able to pass pretty much anything they swallow. In captivity dragons are often given insufficient basking temperatures and dehydration is also usually a factor. Those and stress. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I know a lot of you are completely hands-on with your reptiles and enjoy taking them out dayly, so I'm not going to bother you at all, pay no attention to the following, unless you are doing this and noticing health problems. I think that the extra stress of being taken out of their environment each day (or just having an environment that doesn't suit their needs) will cause extra stress, and that's another factor that often has to do with impactions and heavy parasite loads.

I make sure my reptiles have access to very high temps in case they need them. My uro's basking site can be as hot as 145 degrees in the dead center (and she uses this sometimes), and it gets cooler as you go out from there. Often she is found lying a little to the side of the basking spot. It's just thermoregulation.

My beardie also has access to fairly high temps. Basking temps are up to 120 degrees. he doesn't use this temperature all of the time, but he uses it when he needs it.

I've sort of been rethinking the way I keep my reptiles and starting from the beginning again with a new perspective. If their needs are met, the other problems just don't seem to happen.

I use it for my bearded dragon and my mali uromastyx. I might end up using it in my leopard gecko's humidity shelter. Right now I don't have a very good mix because I just had to get more and they don't have any topsoil or vermiculite out right now, so it's just a mix of potting soil and sand. I think once spring comes I'm going to try to get a really good soil (either store bought or found outside) so that I can give my mali uromastyx around 10" of it to burrow in. Right now the dirt doesn't hold a burrow for crap.

Anyways, I really like dirt because it gets packed down (as long as you put some water in it a couple times a week...just enough it so that it doesn't turn into dust), unlike sand that tends to end up in everything (food, etc.) Plus, being on soil, there is very low humidity, as opposed to virtually no humidity that usually comes from using sand. This plus hot basking temps makes it easier to keep your reptiles healthy (as long as you do it just right). So, since your dragon is well hydrated and has the option of extra hot basking temps, they are way less likely to get impacted. I think the only dragons/uros that I wouldn't keep on soil are anything under 8-10", just because they aren't very good hunters as babies and are more prone to ingesting substrate. I honestly think that if you have all of the conditions optimal, you could keep newborns on it and never run into problems.

But that's my opinion, and it's an untested opinion, so if you do have anything under 8-10", I would suggest staying with paper towels until they get a little larger. Then you can try dirt if you want (and possibly love it!), or you can try sand if you really want to, though I'm not a big fan of sand. Also, a couple more pluses to dirt. I feel comfortable feeding insects on a good dirt, because if it is really a good dirt, it's packed down on top so if they animal misses it's not going to get tons of loose substrate in it's mouth...more like a couple grains of dirt. If they do tend to miss a lot though, I would feed in a seperate container. Also, if you get a dirt from outside, it will have some bacteria in it, which is actually a good thing. From what I've heard from people that have gone that root, it has not affect on the reptiles, and the bacteria will actually deteriorate feces after a couple of days.

Well, that wasn't very organized, but I just wanted to give out the info I've got so far on the subject.

I'm a big fan of sand. It's easy to clean and lasts a long time if you keep it clean.

I used washed playsand for quite a while but I could never completely get all the urates (think that's what they call it) out of the sand and could never completely get rid of the smell. I took some advice from those on here and tried the Duck brand, non-adhesive shelf liner and love it. I keep a extra couple pieces cut so when I wash one I have another to throw in. No more smell and scraping sand off the bottom and putting new in every few weeks. My guys behave no differently without the sand.

Good luck with your choice!

marilee
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0.2 Bearded Dragons (Dezirae & Artimis)
0.2 Dogs (Timex & Brady)
1.0 Sulcata (Speedy)
1.1 Hamsters
1.2 Horses (Joey, Joi & Crystal)
0.2 Beta Fish

I was thinking about trying that shelf liner. Where can you buy it and how do you clean it?

thanks..
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats