sand for beardy sugestions

[joe power]

hello everyone, i am new to the site, sorry if this question has been asked times already, i have not had the time to read through all.

i have a 6 inch beardy, i purchased three bags of natural desert brown sand. guy said its good to stimulate natural habitat as possible. but he said to wait till h is old enough. using paper towel now. my big question is, they say sand is bad for a bay beardy, but the pat store has all thier babys on sand and in the wild wouldnt they be born on sand as well. so why woukld thier natural substrate actually hurt them? thank you all who reply.

 

[KrisWithaK1225]

Well their natural substrate is actually hard, packed down soil. People just associate sand with desert environments rather than what it really is. It is a good idea to keep them on paper towels while they're babies. But I personally do not recommend sand at all. But that's just my opinion.

 

[joe power]

that is some good advice, up untill now i always understood thier natural habitat to be sand. totally never thought about the fact that some deserts have hard packed areas. so what would people think the best hard natural looing substrate would be. i have had an idea. i thought of those natural looking backgrounds you can buy for the back of your tank. would there be a type available for the bottom of your tank to stimulate a natural ground. paper towels just dont have the appeal to me. thanks for the reply.

 

[Bill]

Well their natural substrate is actually hard, packed down soil. People just associate sand with desert environments rather than what it really is. It is a good idea to keep them on paper towels while they're babies. But I personally do not recommend sand at all. But that's just my opinion.

I Totally Agree

 

[SxDx1986]

i know this threads very old but im bored.personally i use alfalfa pellets on mine and they never seem to consume it and as long as you have good climbing areas and large rocks it should help with basking spots and keeping their nails sanded down a little.the alfalfa smells good too and doesnt have any of the calcium or texture that they like to "taste" which could result in extreme death- constipation aka "impaction"

 

[Bill]

The only problem that alfalfa has is mold if you dont clean up realy good it will get moldy but any thing is better then sand its like a slow death for many dragons

 

[sillydylan]

yes i used alfalfa pellets until a few weeks ago then i put him on calcium sand and he loves it

 

[Fliehigh]

Please, Pelase, Please do not use Calicium sand. it clumps in their intestines and does not get digested.

I know it says it is safe and natural but dragons cannot digest it. When it enters there system (and it will as they lick everything) it clumbs in their system causing blockages that can only be removed with surgery.

 

[sillydylan]

the reptile guy who breeds beardies uses it for all his and says as long as your beardie is a subadult it can be digested

 

[Fliehigh]

Hi Sillydylan

Please do your own Google search for Calicium sand and Bearded dragons.

This is a well known issue for all dragons of any age.

 

[LittleMerlin]

Yea it has me concerned 'cause when I got my bearded dragon I came to the pet store a week before, and I could have sworn they were on reptile bark which I heard can be super bad for them. Then the week I got mine, they were suddenly on sand. The sand is getting clumped up on their feet and such so I don't get why they put it on sand? The employees hate it but they don't have control over the store policy. The store is just trying to sell their products, even though so many people say it's bad for them, including the employees. My mom had asked one that one time we came to check the bearded dragons out. The employee said they were just told to use it, even though it's not the best. Every place I've read said sand was HORRIBLE for reptiles and should never be used. Some people do that for older reptiles, and make sure to feed them outside the habitat so they don't accidentally eat the sand but I wouldn't want to risk it.

For Merlin, he was on paper towels, then I read that reptile carpet was good for them. That is until I saw he was starting to get stuck on it. So I changed it back to paper towels 'till I could get some tile. Now since he's old enough, he's on tile and seems to enjoy it. Tile is the closest natural looking substrate that looks nice and isn't too hard to clean. I will consider tile for Jethro once he gets a little bigger, but for now he'll stick with paper towels. he doesn't seem to have a problem with that anyways so paper towels is the best way to go for babies in my opinion. Cheap and easy to spot clean. Just change it out every couple days or so.