sand

[pixiness]

hi just wondreing . . . at the mo i use kitchen paper as a substrate for my beardie who is 6 months old . . . will i ever be able to use sand ? at what age couls i use sand ? and what type would be best ?

[onemanandhisfrog]

i havent got a reptile yet but ive been doing alot of research and sand as substrate is a very hot topic some say yes some say no because of the risk of impaction in the stomach, i decided not to use sand alone but im using thin natural slate rocks with small ammounts of sand in between in an attempt to create a more natural flooring, so i would advise not to use it alone but others opinions may differ

[tigerpaws]

i had my beardies on sand .. with very few problems ..

you really need to watch them when they are eating .. if they keep missing and getting the substrate then .. it is not time to try sand yet...,

you could always make them a sand pit for them to play in . but that can be a faf.

my male beardie would try to eat sand encrusted vegies .. that caused him a problem once .. but some water from a dropper and a warm bath sorted that out in less then 24 hours .

so the choice is yours ..

i am not going to say you should have them on sand or otherwise .. your an adult and it is your choice . just make sure they are ready .. #

Alan

[Pendragon]

Originally Posted by onemanandhisgecko

i havent got a reptile yet but ive been doing alot of research and sand as substrate is a very hot topic some say yes some say no because of the risk of impaction in the stomach, i decided not to use sand alone but im using thin natural slate rocks with small ammounts of sand in between in an attempt to create a more natural flooring, so i would advise not to use it alone but others opinions may differ

This is one way around it, i use sand and hogging/clay mix in my viv, my chap has been on it since he was 3 months.

Originally Posted by tigerpaws

i had my beardies on sand .. with very few problems ..

you really need to watch them when they are eating .. if they keep missing and getting the substrate then .. it is not time to try sand yet...,

It's a good idea NOT to feed in the viv

you could always make them a sand pit for them to play in . but that can be a faf.

This is what some do, it can work, it's up to you.

my male beardie would try to eat sand encrusted vegies .. that caused him a problem once .. but some water from a dropper and a warm bath sorted that out in less then 24 hours .

so the choice is yours ..

i am not going to say you should have them on sand or otherwise .. your an adult and it is your choice . just make sure they are ready .. #

Alan

As alan says, it's your choice, but to let you know where I stand, I don't think impaction from the "right" type of substrate is a problem. They live on the stuff in the wild, so why not in your viv.

Jay

P.S. you will have to put up with the grinding in the runners though

[My_SnAkE_rUlEs]

i have my beardie on play sand from argos, its about 3pound for 15kg
its the finest play sand(so less chance of impactation, my freind (previous owner of my beardie) told me that he has never had any problems this that snad, at i have not had any problems =]
but its ypur choice, paper is cheap, and the play sand from argos in pretty cheap,

your choice =]
hope i've helped =]

[thetomahawkkid58]

this is a hot topic, a lot of people say not to use sand. my beardie when i got him at 2 years old was on paper and he did'nt seem happy.........so i put sand in his viv for him and he loves it, always take him out for his live food, but he has his veg n fruit in a bowl in his viv. i am nearly finished building a new viv for him which has a fake rock interior, but will also be putting in a small amout of sand.

[stern69]

Sand COULD cause impaction, but if you go on a plane it COULD crash.

It's a RISK, nothing more, nothing less. However, i work in risk management and, as anybody else in the industry will tell you, the first step is to eliminate the hazard if you can. In this case, sand is the hazard and therefore, given the multitude of other options out there, i choose not to use it.

Instead i use some nice sandy coloured textured tiles. They're also really easy to clean

It's a massive subject and you must have balls the size of watermelons to bring it up cos the lizard police are always hiding in wait for some poor soul to ask the dreaded sand question.

If you are going to use sand, i'd get a big deep food bowl so that at least they are not eating off the sand. Feeding out of the viv as somebody suggested is nice when you can do it but realistically, with work, school or any other commitments it's not a practical solution.

[Art_Gekko]

I was going to ask a similar question as I'm getting two new leo's who are about 3months old.

I've always kept my other leo and my beardie on sand but they weren't quite as young when I got them

Also my local pet shop sells something called repti maize which they say is safe for the lizard to ingest but I don't know anything about it. Has anyone else heard of it?