What is the best substrate for a bearded dragon?

Question

i know not to use sand or anything that they can injest (wood chips, sand, etc.) but i have read that either reptile carpet, or newspaper/paper/paper towels work the best. is reptile carpet hard to clean? how expensive is it usually? and i would need enought to cover the bottome of a 40 gallon breeder tank. and i know paper would be cheapest. thanks!

Answer 1

Do NOT use reptile carpet.  They can get their claws stuck in it and pull them out.  This happened with one of the geckos my daughter and I adopted.  He was kept on carpet by his previous owners and he only has 2 claws left..I can only imagine the pain that must have caused :(

My daughter volunteers at a local reptile rescue center and the owner said it happens alot.  We all use Ground English Walnut Shells..it looks alot like sand, but is totally digestible.  

Answer 2

I agree the crushed walnut shells are a pretty good choice.  Another option I like to suggest is use whatever type of substrate you like (granted it is non toxic) and feed your beardie in another enclosure.

Feeding in a separate enclosure allows you to verify that is is eating, monitor the amount, and make sure it is not ingesting anything but the food.  It is also just really fun and cool to watch.  I love watching em munch on crickets and meal worms and then tuning and taking a big bite of greens.

Also you can get a herpostat/rheostat for the temp control at most pet shops.

Answer 3

the best stuff i use for my 3 year old beardie is proso white millet it looks like bird seed! it is 30$ for a 50lbs. bag at the place i go to!!

for the temperature cotroller go to www.zoomed.com and it will show u all the stuff u could ever want for your lizard!

Answer 4

beardies are desert animals and coconut fibre tends to get moist. he might not love it...

paper towels are the best, if not pretty.

go to a hardware store, and buy a dimmer switch. its cheap.

or you can buy a rheostat from a pet store, which works the exact same way, but costs about 5x more.

or, if you haven't got a heater pad yet, go to the drug store and buy an electrical heating pad. it's got a low medium high setting, so there you go, the control is already attacked, and it's cheaper then a tank heater, built better and sturdier, won't fluxuate in tempuraters as much, and is designed not to burn as easily. using an undertank heater sometimes is like sticking your animal on a frying pan, a heating pad has all that insulation built in already.  

Answer 5

I am sorry but walnut shells are not digestible and will cause impaction. I have seen far too many cases on impaction with crushed walnut shell substrate. Even sand if it was man made sand has too many gagged edges  and acts as a d**n in the intestines causing blockage. Corn cob substrate same deal. They say natural sand like sterile play sand that was not man made is safer (not completely safe) because the edges tend to be rounded making it easier to pass through the gut.

Nothing beats plain, no print paper for safety. Newspaper just confuses your bearded dragon when looking for food items. However, if you can invest in one of the better substrates I have found for most lizards is plain pearl millet bird seed (no other bird seeds). (WHY?) It was designed by nature to pass through the gut without problem and then dropped and left elsewhere for fertilization. Used widely with uromastyx.

Good luck

Answer 6

Either ground walnut like she suggested or eco earth.

Answer 7

Repti-carpet should be safe. I have used it for years with no problems.

My leopard gecko is missing a toe. This comes from retained shed not the carpet. What happens is the shed may be caught in between scales and such. and it restricts blood flow. So the tissue dies and the toe begins to rot then it may get stuck on the carpet and pulled off. Many people will mistakenly think that the carpet caused the toe to fall off when in-fact it was the skin. I used repti-carpet for almost a year and didn't notice any problems. I then switched over to paper towels and they were a dream, they are very easy to clean.

Now, I am transferring over to tiles. Tiles hold no odors. And they are easily transferable. I assume that you have a 40 breeder which is 36x18. The tiles do overlap a little but they look so much better. they are a lot easier to clean are non porous so non of the p**p smell stays in the tank or seeps through onto the glass or even your hand.

Answer 8

As for your question about controlling heat, yes there is something. I actually bought a lamp that had a built in dimmer switch so I could control the amount of light going into my tanks. Still, that was just because I was too lazy to go to a home improvement store. You can buy dimmer switches for like 4 bucks at most Home Depos and just attach them to whatever heating device you have to control the heating.

Also, I suggest actually feeding them in a separate encloser as well. It just lowers that stress level of trying to find food in the tank they live in. Also, it makes it easier to make their exhibit that much more awesome and fun. No need to worry about looking for stray crickets in the rocks.

Answer 9

i use a sand called garnet for my beaded dragon but the reptile carpet is also good