Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have 1 half with special ig sand its not like normal sand either and on the other half i have plants i got assorted ferns assorted palms and a aralia and they are in miricle grow potting soil i want to make sure all of thats ok for my ig i dont want him to get hurtso i am watching him very closly in there untill some one gives me an answere
P.S. heres some info if u need it its a 72 gallion tank and my ig is about 2 foot long tall and all and hes about a year old or so

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If he can eat it and its not food it can get impacted which can kill them. sand/dirt of any kind is not good unless its in a nesting box which is only there until the gravid female lays her eggs.

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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

I wish I knew, but I don't I know some of the bigger Ig sites like anapsid.org and greenigsociety have lists of toxic and ok plants for igs, I'd suggest looking there to make sure all your plants are fine. Your ig IS going to eat them, and probably trash them, just so you know For substrate, I use linoleum tile with newspaper - it isn't pretty, but its at the bottom, I don't really see it, and it cleans up easily. Tempest spends most of his time up on the top shelves anyways (I'm so excited, he's finally actually using his whole cage!). Hope this helps! Sounds like your ig has a good home

thanx bexley he seems to be happy here and being neerly 16 iits kida hard to give him the best consiering i work at kfc and have a meesley income haha and mommyof2greenigs i keep his foo at the opasite end of the tank far away from the dirt so he doesent kick ne in the bowl i will have a picture of the tank soon so u guys can see how great it looks thank u!

It dosent matter where your food bowl is. He still flicks his tongue. Iguanas are like babies. They will put anything in their mouth and swallow it. iguanas flick their tongues and the sand can and will get in their mouths. They have to be "baby proofed". that baby iguana you have will soon be 6 feet long and taking your room away.I suggest you pick up, "Iguanas for Dummies" By Melissa Kalpan and Check out her webpage at www.anapsid.org

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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

i am well awar of that i have raised this iguana from a hatchling and hes very healthy as well he spends more time in my room then his tank and my room in 100% ig proof(i made sure of that the day i moved in here)but im sure he will be ok cuzz he pretty much has onley flicked his toungue at the plants(wich i had checked they are NOT poisonus) he spends most of its time in his tank sitting on his log basking in the uv but thanx for ur consern..but i keep a close watch on my kia

Sorry if this sounds harsh but why ask for advice if you're going to turn around and openly discount it on the forum.
Like you said sweetie. . . you're only 16. There are folks w/decades of collective experience responding to your requests.
Show some respect for the advice they take the time to provide. Continue to openly discount it and, I assure you, they'll quit responding.
By the way. . .Yes! I completely agree w/the advice you've been given to remove sand AND plant from your enclosure. It may not be as pretty for you to look at but it will be a much better env. for your IG.

listen i listend to her advice thanked her for it but descided not to follow and do something else and its not sand!it was some miricle grow sh!t but i changed it thismorning to a special formualfor ig tanks with plants i had the plants checked out(and thats y i posted not to get lectured but to make sure my plants werent poisinus)and the plants are safe 1 (the spiderplant) is edible and i have had lizards and iguanas around me for a long time from other members outside my imidiate famiely and just cuzz i am 16 doesent lower my intellegents on igs(dont look at my typing when u read that statement...)kia meens alot to me and i believe he has a good home here he seems to be happy and hes very tame and sweet. i have had him sincehe was a hatchling and and hes still healthy growing lizard so dont talk to me like u are better then me when it comes to ur "experience level"u maybe older then me but DEFINATLY NOT better i dont take to kindly to folks critisizing me when they dont even know me or what im doin u all are great peopole but u have no tolarance level...but word to all if u just gunna sit here and lecture me DONT BOTHER REPLYING!!!!!!!!!!!

hey they have this sand out that is safe for ur reptiles to eat i believe its called calcisand or sumthing like that but its safe for them to swallow if the do eat it on accident but it works i dont have it i have sum bright blue turf that i got from home depot its extremely cheap and u can take it out the cage and wash it but if u want to use the sand its all good ans safe

I don't know how igs fare on calcisand, but I will not keep my beardies on it, its lethal. It impacts easily in their gut, if you look on the beardie forums everyone is very against it. I can't imagine and ig enjoying any form of sand myself, as they are a tropical rainforest reptile as well as arboreal. I still say linoleum and newspaper is the way to go for the bottom of an enclosure, but thats just myself.

yea the sand is good for igs and beardies i checked it out at a petshop they have igs and beardies in the same tank and have calcisand in it that is sand expeciall made for reptiles when they eat if they eat the sand...

Wouldn't put much faith in a petstore that keeps Id's and BD's in the same tank. That's ridiculous . . . not only because of safety reasons but because Ig's are tropical & aboreal & BD's are pretty much the exact opposite.
Besides that, considering pet stores are out make a buck, do you think it's likely they'll tell you not to use what they're selling.

My vet agrees with you on calcisand. As well as the crushed walnots and things that will "pass" easily and "wont" get impacted. But thats just my 2 cents worth. I wouldnt have any kind of sand near my igs because of the dangers.

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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

yea the sand is good for igs and beardies i checked it out at a petshop they have igs and beardies in the same tank and have calcisand in it that is sand expeciall made for reptiles when they eat if they eat the sand...

>>I don't know how igs fare on calcisand, but I will not keep my beardies on it, its lethal. It impacts easily in their gut, if you look on the beardie forums everyone is very against it. I can't imagine and ig enjoying any form of sand myself, as they are a tropical rainforest reptile as well as arboreal. I still say linoleum and newspaper is the way to go for the bottom of an enclosure, but thats just myself.
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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

>>I don't know how igs fare on calcisand, but I will not keep my beardies on it, its lethal. It impacts easily in their gut, if you look on the beardie forums everyone is very against it. I can't imagine and ig enjoying any form of sand myself, as they are a tropical rainforest reptile as well as arboreal. I still say linoleum and newspaper is the way to go for the bottom of an enclosure, but thats just myself.

Igs should not have access to ANY sand products. I called my vet FROM a pet store and asked about calcisand and he told me not to waste my money because its not good for my ig because it can get impacted. Petstores dont CARE what you see. Most of them dont even take care of their animals MUCH LESS know how to care for them. Beardies and igs in the same cage? I have never seen that before. Everywhere I have been keeps beardies and igs in different cages. Just my 2 cents. If you put it in there its your choice.
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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

i have this stuff i dont member what its called but its the same stuff i have used for kia his whole life he has kicked it in his food flicked his tounge and its played around in it and nothing bad has EVER happend to him he seems to be able to digest it like his normal greens but i cnt imagine kis likinf lanoleum and newpaper haha! he wouldent know what to do with it it would be a very funny site to see how would u make use of that ne ways...all i picture is the bottom covered in lanoleum and coverd with bits of news paper kia has a hard enuff time trying to fet around the backrooom floor let alone try to walk on it in his cage hehe but yeah i think its called reptosand or something its pretty expensive like 10 bucks for a couple pounds or something but i hope i dident make this thing sound like i was putting down the whole linoleum thing...(i will NEVER be able to spell that haha) i was just thinking how funny it would be to see kia in it

1> If you want to be taken seriously, and not thought of as an ignorant kid, don't type like one. Your post above was pretty much unreadable, and I don't think you can go more than 3 words without making brutal spelling and grammar mistakes on easy words you should be able to spell by grade 4.

2> Linoleum and newspaper - he goes to the bottom of his cage to poop, thats it. He has shelves, ropes and ladders to climb, jump to and from, and bask on. He spends most of his days between 5' and 7' off the ground... the tile is at ground level. Walking on it is not an issue, and as an arboreal animal I have given him an arboreal environment to live in.

3> If you've used calcisand and been ok, you're lucky. I hope you never go through an impaction, its ugly. Personally, I won't take the risk, but thats my choice. You have to live with yours, and so do your animals.

I think he's saying he uses reptisand... it's very fine grade and I keep one of my desert snakes on it... I couldn't imagine keeping a tropical lizard on such a drying substrate, though.

ok look yall i was just saying it was ok cuz all the ppl i know that have ig's have calcisand..for along time and there ig's have never had any trouble and i dont have my ig on sand i have it on turf and u can get for really cheap....

Is that the ground walnut shells used for desert igs because its not messy like real sand? It has an iguana on the front of the package and its around 10 bucks for a 5 pound bag. Way expensive and its scoopable. Its supposed to "pass" through the igs like greens BUT I can say I DID try it back when I was a newbie owner and opne of my igs did get a partial impaction (didnt poop for 3 days) and my vet said that the shells are hat did it. Took it out ASAP (that night) and he pooped after a 3 hour soak (20 mins in 10 out). Its about the size of "rough" sugar. My igs are on newspaper with plastic under it.
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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

Didnt mean desert IGS... Meant desert reptiles.Sorry
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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

i keep my ig on blue turf never on the walnuts or what ever but my ig likes the turf and its really cheap

Turf had a problem with my newest adoptee that has a broken leg and several broken or injured toes. So we just switched to newspaper in her cage and Andys until she is better. either way is how i would go. Never to sand/like substrates again...
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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

It is just plain silly. Sand is unsafe to use for many animals even some desert species. I do use fine play ground sand for bearded dragons but that’s about it.

1> If you want to be taken seriously, and not thought of as an ignorant kid, don't type like one. Your post above was pretty much unreadable, and I don't think you can go more than 3 words without making brutal spelling and grammar mistakes on easy words you should be able to spell by grade 4.

As for this crap. Some people have problems with specific task such as written expression due to learning disabilities or other reasons. Some times a trauma of some sort causes people to not be able to express themselves in written form very well although they may very well be extremely bright. I happen to be one of those people. A car accident when I was 15 left me with a severe learning disability that manifests its self in written expression. While my verbal skills, mathematical and compression scores on popular performance test score me in the high 90th percentile my written expression and special relations scores are that of a 4th grader.

So maybe next time before you go shooting off your mouth about someone’s spelling and grammar you may think twice about what circumstances have brought them to their problem.

I have learned to cope with my problems hence Nursing school BSn and now working toward a Physicians assistant degree

Mat Price