Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The main thing I am wondering about is substrate. Sterilized/washed playsand correct??

i use papertowles . they are cheap, disposible , easy to replace. because when these guys poop.... its big.
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1.0.1 Green Anole(tedo, bubbles)
1.0. Tremper Albino Leo gecko (Brut)
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon(AXE)
1.0.0 Small Dog( Cho lu la)

0.1.0 Girl Friend

whats more important than the sand being washed is that it is sifted for larger particles. the large particles will get injested and cause impactation....which may kill the animal. sand is great for any lizard older than six months.

although i just switched from using sand to using shelf liner. the only benefit from using the shelf liner is that the dragon can't eat it. Sand is easier to remove the poo and absorbs some of the smell too.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

i have used playsand for all my beardies and uros in the past without any problems and i have spaz(my little bd)on sand too. oh, when i say little i meant comparitively speaking. i learned the hard way not to use repti-sand...its very very very(ok you get the point)expensive and even tho it is pretty, it is very fine i believe it could cause RI's. just thought i would throw that little tid bit in.
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1.0.0 bearded dragon
1.1.0 green iguana
0.0.1 columbian tegu
0.1.0 knight anole(looking for male)
0.1.0 green anole
1.1.0 golden gecko
1.0.0 ball python
0.0.5 oriental firebellied toad
0.0.1 green treefrog
0.0.1 barking treefrog
0.0.1 cuban masked treefrog
0.0.1 gray treefrog
0.1.0 gulf hammock rat snake
0.1.0 eastern kingsnake
0.1.0 siberian husky

i have heard that calci sand and repti sand causes impaction even more so then play sand do to the fact that it kind of encourages the lizard to eat it because it has calcium in it. they are no more digestable then playsand ither. this is just what i have heard more then one time i do not know myself because im still on pappertowls for now till i make my beardie a perment cage.
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1.0.1 Green Anole(tedo, bubbles)
1.0. Tremper Albino Leo gecko (Brut)
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon(AXE)
1.0.0 Small Dog( Cho lu la)

0.1.0 Girl Friend

When picking a substrate for your beardie you have to consider a few things. 1) how old is the beardie going to be? 2) How much time do you have for cleaning?

If your beardie is under a year old then they should only be housed on paper towels, linelium, shelf liner or something else they cannot eat. Babies have bad aim, and tounge taste EVERYTHING, they will injest some of the material, and their intestines are too small to pass even small amounts of sand.

Adult beardies CAN be kept on washed/screened fine grain play sand, but its not the safest or easiest method out there. If you use sand, be aware that a risk of impaction is always present. Also, a big problem with sand is it harbors bacteria, when your beardie defecates, even if you scoop it up and the surrounding sand, some of the bacteria has already absorbed into the sand and seeded bacteria. Too safely house an animal on sand the entire tank must be completely cleaned and changed once weekly.

Some easier methods are using paper towels, which are cheap and quick to clean (just lay down new towels). Non Adhesive Shelf liner (my personal favorite) is very easy. You simply ask for shelf liner at your local walmart and pick a non adhesive kind that has minimal texture (some of them are very bumpy and hard to clean) and is cushiony. This can be laid across the bottom of the tank, a wet paper towel is enough to clean up any messes and the whole thing can be removed and cleaned as needed

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0.1 Bearded dragon (Hannabil)
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake (Morticia)
2.1 Leopard Gecko's (Pogo,Jeffrey Nothing, Louise)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn (Autumn)
1.0 Blood Red Corn (Virus)
0.1 Bullmastiff (Asha)
4.1 Cats (Poe, Tucker, Abhid, Felicity, Emmy)