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Time & again there are posts by keepers of snakes & lizards saying they use paper, tile or carpet flooring in preference to a natural loose substrate because of 'too high a risk' of gut compaction in case the reptile ingests any of the substrate.
But this is largely a myth, & if correct husbandry & a properly suitable substrate is used, compaction need never occur.
Benefits of a loose substrate are as follows:
It looks more natural.
It allows the reptile to dig & burrow.
It absorbs smells of faeces & urates.
Negative points of solid flooring such as paper, lino, carpet etc:
It looks awful.
It denies the reptile its natural instinct to dig.
It smells when the reptile poops.
There are of course, some loose substrates that are not advisable:
Wood chips.
Calci sand.
These really can cause gut impaction.
Suggested loose substrates:
Eco earth.
Play sand.
Soil.
Orchid bark.
prepackaged substrates.
Sand/soil mix.
Auboise.
Aspen.
Which of those you use depends on the type of reptile of course.
Also, bear this in mind:
Reptiles rarely encounter paper, lino, carpet or tiles in the wild (not unless they come across them on a rubbish dump or anywhere like that). They do however, live on loose substrates such as sand, soil, gravel, rubble & leaf mould, & gut impaction doesn't seem to be a problem there.
Therefore, loose substrates shouldn't be a problem for your pets. Even if a reptile does ingest some substrate, if your husbandry is up to scratch it will pass safely through the gut. Many reptiles will spit it out anyway.
But this is largely a myth, & if correct husbandry & a properly suitable substrate is used, compaction need never occur.
Benefits of a loose substrate are as follows:
It looks more natural.
It allows the reptile to dig & burrow.
It absorbs smells of faeces & urates.
Negative points of solid flooring such as paper, lino, carpet etc:
It looks awful.
It denies the reptile its natural instinct to dig.
It smells when the reptile poops.
There are of course, some loose substrates that are not advisable:
Wood chips.
Calci sand.
These really can cause gut impaction.
Suggested loose substrates:
Eco earth.
Play sand.
Soil.
Orchid bark.
prepackaged substrates.
Sand/soil mix.
Auboise.
Aspen.
Which of those you use depends on the type of reptile of course.
Also, bear this in mind:
Reptiles rarely encounter paper, lino, carpet or tiles in the wild (not unless they come across them on a rubbish dump or anywhere like that). They do however, live on loose substrates such as sand, soil, gravel, rubble & leaf mould, & gut impaction doesn't seem to be a problem there.
Therefore, loose substrates shouldn't be a problem for your pets. Even if a reptile does ingest some substrate, if your husbandry is up to scratch it will pass safely through the gut. Many reptiles will spit it out anyway.