Beardie Kicking Substrate and Clawing at Tank

[BeardieLover1011]

I have a beardie named Liz and he is around 18 inches and 1 year 3 months old. Lately he has been running around his heat side of the tank and has been pushing the substrate to the other side and clawing at the tank. He has never really done it before, so I don’t really know what to do. Please help!

 

[kingofnobbys]

Remove the substrate which is an impaction risk.

 

[BeardieLover1011]

Okay, thank you. What are some other bedding I could use for the tank instead of the substrate?

BeardieLover1011

 

[AHBD]

What do you use as substrate ? Your dragon may actually be a female looking to lay eggs. Can you post pics of the rear end [ vent ] like this :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/sexing/

Here's how to post pics :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

And BTW, loose substrate is not all the extreme health risk that it is made out to be. The majority of my dragons have lived on sand or sand/soil substrate with no problems. The stories that get passed around are old + extreme cases , very few and the same old pictures . The culprit is usually calcium sand which many reptiles actually eat when they are lacking calcium [ and it may taste good ] But plain sand + topsoil are O.K. as substrates. If your dragon loves to dig, that's because it's a natural instinct and if your dragon is a female she will need a laybox with sand + soil for the rest of her life as long as she produces eggs.