Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was in my local library the other day and had a read through one of the reptile books, it says that oats or oatmeal can be considered as a substrate for geckos, is this true? It went on to say that it is obviously not harmful 2 the gex if consumed as it is a "food" substance. I have a few doubts - due to the temp and humidity of the tank would this not turn the oatmeal rotten? And secondly has anyone tried this with sucess?

Any replies greatly appreciated

I think oats or oatmeal still could cause an impaction if it were digested by a leo. I use oatmeal for my mealies, and it does get kinda gross if it gets wet, or when I haven't changed it after a while. Also, I'm wondering what would happen once its heated.... I'm not sure it would be a good idea. Maybe for a rabbit or a hamster or something, but not a gecko.
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~*Chibi*~
Sir Iggy ( 1.0.0 El Salvador Blue Iguana), Ryo-ohki, Orion, Bud, & Finnegan (3.1.0 crazy kitties), Rosebud (0.1.0 cockerspaniel), and Kayko (0.0.1 leopard gecko)

I have never heard of it, and I think it's a bad idea too. just for fun do you know when that book was published? I bet it's an old one. We know a huge amount more about reptiles than we did even 15 years ago.

how about grain mites? bad idea!
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I've never heard of keeping reptiles on oats but if you do a search here you will find posts of people keeping Bearded Dragons on wheat bran, the same stuff people use for mealworms.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
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