I have a juevinile bearded dragon...What about this?

Question

I just got him 1 week ago. He looks to be about 7 months old. I was told by the pet store to have the calcium sand and not the play sand for his bedding. Then I saw on line that the play sand is just fine. What is the real thing to do?

Answer 1

5 of of my 6 lizards are on a sand or sand based substrate and they have never had impaction problems. It's washed play sand, someone said to stay away from heat rocks...yes the can burn your lizard if you don't know what you are doing, wrap it in a sock a couple of times, so you can feel the heat, but have a cushion between the lizard and the burning hot surface. One of my littlest guys has a heat rock and after 4 years never got burned.

Answer 2

Pet stores don't usually know what they are talking about!  Do not use ANY kind of sand, as it can lead to severe intestinal impaction.  Even play ground sand is not good.  It is not natural for these animals to be forced to live in a small sandy area where they must eat and p**p.  Sand harbors bacteria, parasites (beardies have a lot of parasites which is why a vet check is very necessary), and is difficult to keep clean.  It will soon stink!  Also, when you mist the dragon daily, the sand gets wet--this raises the humidity too high and causes respiratory infections.

I use non-adhesive shelf liner in my lizard cages...it is easy to clean (you can spot clean or washing machine clean), looks great, comes in lots of colors, is cheap.  :)

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.co...

Answer 3

use tile or newspaper if u want to use sand so the tank could look good feed him in another container

Answer 4

The pet sotre wants to make money the fact of the matter is the ONLY safe sand is washed play sand. Wet play sand and wet calci sand now watch how the calci sand lumps up like cement.

NO sand marketed for reptiles is safe strangely enough who know what the manufacturers were thinking, same with heat rocks.

http://www.kakadudragons.com/caresheet/c...

Answer 5

hi!, i just got a bearded dragon recently to! i found that the safest thing for your bearded dragon is not sand but reptile cage carpet that you can get at your local pet shop, its easier to clean and safe!

good luck!

Answer 6

dont believe petstores they have screwed me about 200$, play sand is fine they just want you to buy there stuff. do reasearch before you go to petstore to see what they truely need

Answer 7

I would stay away from sand in general.  Even adult beardies can easily get impacted if they accidentally swallow too much sand (same goes for walnut shell bedding, small pebbles etc.).  

Besides risking impaction, sand can easily get in their eyes!  My 8 year old that I got two months ago was on sand when he was with his previous owner (and he was also in a 33 gallon tank, which is MUCH too small...) and he still can't see properly out of his left eye from sand getting stuck in there and being left untreated.

Some safer options are Coconut bedding, repti-carpet or other low-pile carpet cut to fit, or even just paper towel.  Carpet and other non-particulate beddings are the safest, although they aren't quite as easy to keep clean.  If you don't mind how it looks, you can use paper towel and just remove and replace the section that gets dirty.

Personally, I go to a carpet store and find some tan/brown carpet roll ends (LOW PILE though, otherwise they can easily get caught toes) and cut to fit.  I just spot clean when they p**p.  It's safe, relatively easy to keep clean, and it looks good, too.