Impaction

[Rukmini]

Anther thing I would like to add in is the loss of natural selection. Due to humans pairing all animals there is no competition for a mate. This is hugely important in development of a population. The competition means that the strong (poputation benifiting) genes are passed on rather than the 'weeker' ones.

A good example of this is antibiotics. In the wild an animal would need to be 'strong'/'fit' to survive disease and if it is not then its genes are removed from the gene pool. With us interfering we are not only allowing the genes to remain in the gene pool but also pass it on to the nest generation.

[lota-front]

proof of impactation ..... today 1 of my beardies was put to sleep !!!! wood chippings ........ never ever again ! enough said !!

[Rukmini]

Originally Posted by lota-front

proof of impactation ..... today 1 of my beardies was put to sleep !!!! wood chippings ........ never ever again ! enough said !!

Sorry to hear that
RIP little 1

[lota-front]

Originally Posted by Rukmini

Sorry to hear that
RIP little 1

thankyou , it was the first ever time i used the darn stuff as well , its now been removed n ill never buy it again for any of my reptiles ! i was heart broken taking her this morning as 4 days ago i took her with a swollen mouth n the vet thought it was a insect bitten her mouth n gave anti biotics so this morning was only a follow up check up , explaining to my kids was the hard part n i feel sooooo guilty !!!

[PaleRider]

Originally Posted by lota-front

...impactation ..... wood chippings ........ never ever again ! enough said !!

That's awfully sad and I am very sorry to hear it.

The limited reports from this forum are fairly consistent with my own findings on this subject really. Lightweight substrates like wood/bark chips, crushed card, corn and corn pellets etc. and (IMO) kitchen paper do appear to pose a potential threat. As do very dusty substrates, but not for the same reason.

An additional variable, which I have not seen discussed here (sorry if it has been and I have missed it) is how inert the material is. Some organic materials can be prone to invisible fungal growth and subsequent contamination of the air at ground level. Generally, this is not an issue, but for delicate species, prone to respiratory problems anyway, it can be.

[messengermatt]

rarely do you ever hear that sand has killed a reptile from impaction so i see less of an issue with that these days especially as there are new sands on the market that are pure calcium.

What we do hear however all the time is how wood chipping's have caused massive impactions, we had a leo that was saved but when we got him his gut was full of it

And yes there was a report last week or 2 ago that a leo swallowed kitchen towel and suffered a case of impaction.

I am against wood chippings now for obvious reasons, i am not against sand but am leaning more also against kitchen towel.

hence i have said a while ago on here i will be researching the leos real habitat and will be trying to mimic it as best i can

[Rukmini]

When I first got interested in reptile keeping my friend had a leopard gecko who used to lick the sand a lot even though the set up was fine. He would pass the sand and have sand poos. He's still going now.

[Rukmini]

Hi,
Just found this its from freekygeeky

For those of you who use bark substrate ( necropsy photos) - Gecko Resource Forums

It is worth a look

[substantia07]

my female basilisk REALLY likes sphagnum moss--i had to take it out after an initial air plant romance because she kept going back to it. she won't take greens! but she will take the moss....otherwise i don't use sustrate because they hang in the trees so much so really i can't say....maybe she got the taste for it whilst burrowing to lay her eggs? hmmm....she is crazed