First Leopard Gecko... Sand or no sand??

Salzburg · Oct 26, 2011

Righto, I've had my leo gecko for a couple days now.

I know about the big debate on using sand as a substrate, but at the moment I've got sand in my viv, since that is what came with it originally. I'm looking into getting some slabs of slate to put in to cover most of the floor, but leave a bit of sand in there for her.

Would this be alright? We've been keeping an eye on her for most of the day today and she hasn't ingested any, and she is tweezer fed so I'm not concerned about sand getting on her food.

Any advice would be great, even if its not relating to substrate. This is my first gecko and even though I've done my research etc, it's nice to hear from experienced people.

jools · Oct 27, 2011

Congrats on the new gecko!

Slate with a bit of sand infill makes a brilliant substrate. It is about as close to natural that you can get and has very little impaction risk. The slate transmits the heat from a heatmat very well.

We'd like to see pics of your new arrival!

Salzburg · Oct 27, 2011

Thank you very much, I'll be sure to put some photos up when she's all happy and settled.

And thank you for the advice! I've put quite a bit of slate in today, made a mosaic like pattern with large broken bits of slate (made sure they weren't sharp either

) with just a little bit of sand in between, and she seems to be loving it. Nice and toasty for her <3

davy27 · Oct 27, 2011

hi i'm new to this to only had mine 2 weeks now. I use slate as it is good for the temps and much cleaner too, and the sand thing goes on how old your leo is if young then get the sand out not to bad when they are older hope this helps just remember they are most active when you are asleep so you might not see them ingest

First Leopard Gecko... Sand or no sand??

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