Reptile & Amphibian Forums

heres a pic of 2 of the three of my geckos(plus the others tail). just thought i'd share. and yes they are in sand and no i do not care what you have to say about it.

way to set yourself up for major dissapointment.
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-ryan
fancher@email.com

I used to keep all my adult breeders on sand. As long as you are feeding and supplementing them properly it is fine.

BTW, I keep my knobtails on sand too. And when I kept beardies I used sand for them as well.
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Peace-
Kelli Hammack
H.I.S.S.
email me

I don't think the problem is the sand in this case. A very experianced and vigilent person should be able to keep leos on sand. I would never use it for two reasons...it's like playing Russian Roulette with your leos...and they are NOT built for it. They have a completely bad body type for running around on sand. Being so heavy with such little feet, they sink right away. I kept 2 leos on sand for less than 24 hours. As soon as they hit sand and sunk in, they paniced!! It was stressful for them, and for me because I was the one who made the change. Next day I went to slate in my show tanks and never looked back.

The thing that ticks me off the most about this post is not the sand, but the additude. A simple "I'm aware of the risk" is all that was needed. Instead, it sounds like "I don't care and I'm not going to listen". A vastly different additude, and a little scary.
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Official Leopard Gecko Freak

3:4:1 Leos - Gilean (HTCT), Aurora (High Yellow), Amber (LVPA), Garnet (Tang), Tigerlily (HT), and Mirage (SHT), Found (HT), Lost (LVPA) (1:0 more on the way! WOO!)
2:0 Cats - Troi and Mitsu (shhhhh...don't tell them they're neutered!)
4:0 Betas - So pretty, yet so violent!
1:0 Husband - Eric (He's a lot of work, but it's worth it.)

Here you have a person with 12 years of experience keeping leopard geckos (me) that is telling you that I kept my adult breeders on sand for years and had zero problems. I am not talking about 10 geckos, I am talking dozens of them. I know several other breeders that still keep their adults on sand as well. Most of them do not bother to post on forums anymore but if they did I am sure they would not say they keep their breeders on sand because then they would be criticised by people that do not have the experience and/or knowledge that they do.

As far as ingesting/impaction goes... for those that use peat moss, or vermiculite (shudders) in their nest boxes, you think that your leos have no chance of ingesting some of that, and possibly becoming impacted? I had an adult male blizzard once choke on his own skin during a shed! I found him dead in his cage with shed skin hanging out of his mouth and all stuck in his throat. He was a 100 gram beautiful, white blizzard with paradox spots on him too My point is that leos could possibly become impacted or have problems ingesting just about anything in their cages that can fit in their mouths. I have seen mine swallow pieces of paper towel when they were eating! That was kind of freaky but never have a had a leopard gecko die due to impacted anything.

The only reason I switched to paper towel is because I got tired of all the dusty sand all over my gecko room! Paper towels work out better for me, but sand was easy, just take a sifter to the cages every other day. I guess if you are really paranoid you could keep them like Tremper does with no substrate at all LOL.
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Peace-
Kelli Hammack
H.I.S.S.
email me

The only time I ever post here anymore seems to be on a new sand thread once or twice a year. Something about that topic gets me going hehe. LOL please don't anyone take offense now, it is just my opinion.
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Peace-
Kelli Hammack
H.I.S.S.
email me

it's not that i don't care for my geckos, because i do soooo much. but i am aware of the risk i am taking, i watch carefully during each feeding, and as for them sinking in, i use a combination of aquarium fine sand and calcisand and that seems to be a bit thicker than either one on their own.

No offense taken. It's a hot button topic and always will be.

I would never attack someone for using sand. I know other breeders as well that use sand with some of their collection.

I would, however, want to be sure that the person is at least aware of the risks. So many people get into this hobby and hear from unreliable sources (read: pet stores) that sand is great, and to make it even better there is even a "healthy" calcium sand!

When I put my first two geckos on sand, I really felt horrible seeing how stressed they were. It wasn't a "Hey, everything is new in here!" type of stress...it was more of a terrified "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!". It's enough for me to never use sand again.

My guys are perfectly happy sleeping on rocks and using lumpy pillows. That is something I think a lot of people can learn from (I hear a lot of concerns about comfort). We might not think rocks are comfy...but they don't mind in the least!

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Official Leopard Gecko Freak

3:4:1 Leos - Gilean (HTCT), Aurora (High Yellow), Amber (LVPA), Garnet (Tang), Tigerlily (HT), and Mirage (SHT), Found (HT), Lost (LVPA) (1:0 more on the way! WOO!)
2:0 Cats - Troi and Mitsu (shhhhh...don't tell them they're neutered!)
4:0 Betas - So pretty, yet so violent!
1:0 Husband - Eric (He's a lot of work, but it's worth it.)

that guy was jelous so he mooned the camera

lol
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CKA