Tiles VS Shelf-Liner in vivs?

Hi guys, I've had my Beardies for about a month and they're little babies! I've been thinking about improving their housing quarters and I have seen a lot of people using tiles as the flooring for your tank. I currently have reptile carpet, which is a pain because whenever I feed my Beardies the crickets go right under the edges of the carpet and it's just so annoying! I figured that tile is heavy and no cricket could get underneath of it, so I figured I'd give it a try. On the other hand, I've heard of people using shelf liner. I'm not sure if it's any good, and I have no clue what type of shelf liner to buy... I have quite a few questions so bear with me please and try and answer them all!

TILE QUESTIONS
1) What type of tile should I buy? (Ceramic, Natural Stone, Mosiac, Glass, Marble, etc.)
2) Should I put anything underneath of the tiles? (Shelf-Liner perhaps or something else)
3) Do they retain heat well?
4) Will they overheat or burn my Beardies under my basking light?
5) Will the heat from an UTH be able to penetrate the tile & be of use to my Beardies?
6) Do the Beardie's slip/fall on it like they would with a regular glass tank bottom?
7) Are they easy to clean?

SHELF-LINER QUESTIONS
1) What type of shelf-liner should I buy? (Please provide with link to a store in the US if possible!)
2) Is anything needed under the shelf liner?
3) Does it retain heat well?
4) Will it overheat or burn my Beardies under my basking light?
5) Will the heat from an UTH be able to penetrate the shelf liner & be of use to my Beardies?
6) Do the Beardie's slip/fall on it like they would with a regular glass tank bottom?
7) Is it easy to clean?

I'd like answers from people who have/had shelf liner or tiles in their tanks. Any more info on the subject would be great, thanks a bunch!

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PumpkinJelly":1st4rapb said:

TILE QUESTIONS
1) What type of tile should I buy? (Ceramic, Natural Stone, Mosiac, Glass, Marble, etc.) I've used slate and ceramic... Those are usually the most popular.
2) Should I put anything underneath of the tiles? (Shelf-Liner perhaps or something else) I used shelf liner under them to protect the glass.
3) Do they retain heat well? Yes, very well.
4) Will they overheat or burn my Beardies under my basking light? Nope.
5) Will the heat from an UTH be able to penetrate the tile & be of use to my Beardies?
6) Do the Beardie's slip/fall on it like they would with a regular glass tank bottom? Ceramic tiles can be a little slippery, but they should get used to it. The only time Dud ever slipped a little was when he was trying to launch himself into his hammock from the tile.
7) Are they easy to clean? Generally, yes. The one thing that bugged me with slate is that it would absorb wetness.

SHELF-LINER QUESTIONS
1) What type of shelf-liner should I buy? (Please provide with link to a store in the US if possible!) Any kind that is solid, and isn't sticky. You can buy it just about anywhere. I got my gecko's at Walmart for $5.
2) Is anything needed under the shelf liner? No, but I always velco the corners so bugs can't get underneath.
3) Does it retain heat well? Unless you have heat directly on it, it stays room-temp.
4) Will it overheat or burn my Beardies under my basking light? Nope.
5) Will the heat from an UTH be able to penetrate the shelf liner & be of use to my Beardies? Yes, I have a UTH on a thermostat under my gecko's shelf liner. UTH aren't very good for beardies though, because they can't sense heat underneath them.
6) Do the Beardie's slip/fall on it like they would with a regular glass tank bottom? No, it's very grippable.
7) Is it easy to clean? Yes, VERY easy!

I'd like answers from people who have/had shelf liner or tiles in their tanks. Any more info on the subject would be great, thanks a bunch!

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I've had both, and personally I like shelf liner a little better. If I grouted tiles in my viv I would probably like them just the same, but I didn't want something so permanent LOL. My bugs managed to crawl under the tiles some how, and it is never fun to clean them when your beardie poops on the crack between tiles.

Shelf liner is really easy to clean and you can keep the bugs out from under it with velcro. Its squishy and grippy for them too, but it isn't as durable as tile. You should probably replace it once or twice a year, depending on how abusive your beardie is to it.

Another substrate to think about is non-adhesive linoleum... That is what I use for Dud now, and I love it! It is like shelf liner but 100x more durable, and it looks exactly like tiles but is lighter and easier to clean. The only down side is that is a tad slippery and smells a litte funny, but nothing that will hurt your beardie.

PumpkinJelly":2n69xxwr said:

TILE QUESTIONS

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BOY, YOU ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS!!! :lol:

I can only give you tile answers as I've never used shelf liner :wink:

PumpkinJelly":2n69xxwr said:

1) What type of tile should I buy? (Ceramic, Natural Stone, Mosiac, Glass, Marble, etc.)

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rough surface (like natural stone) ceramic is probably the easiest to work with and probably the cheapest.

PumpkinJelly":2n69xxwr said:

2) Should I put anything underneath of the tiles? (Shelf-Liner perhaps or something else)

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my tiles are on the floor of a melamine viv, so I didn't put anything between the tile and the bottom of my viv. in my daughters gecko glass tank, I put paper towels between the glass bottom and the tile so the tile wouldn't scratch the glass.

PumpkinJelly":2n69xxwr said:

3) Do they retain heat well?

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you don't have to worry about retaining heat. the tile cools off pretty quickly after lights out

PumpkinJelly":2n69xxwr said:

4) Will they overheat or burn my Beardies under my basking light?

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no, you'll probably have a basking platform of some sort, the tiles on the floor will not heat up anywhere near as hot as the basking spot.

PumpkinJelly":2n69xxwr said:

5) Will the heat from an UTH be able to penetrate the tile & be of use to my Beardies?

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you don't use UTH with bearded dragons with of without tiles.

PumpkinJelly":2n69xxwr said:

6) Do the Beardie's slip/fall on it like they would with a regular glass tank bottom?

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get a textured surface tile like a natural stone, you dragon will be fine and the textured surface will keep his nails from getting too long.

PumpkinJelly":2n69xxwr said:

7) Are they easy to clean?

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very easy, just wipe up with water or very mild disinfectant. The only pain is when he goes right on the crack of two tiles, you'll need to lift the tile to wipe up the wetness.

Hope this helps,
Larry

EDIT: **sigh** Jess is always stealing my thunder :wink:

I used non-laminated slate tile, first 6"x6", which were kind of a pain with lizard messes running between them, then 12"x12" on the section he usually did his business on. The 12"x12" tiles can be a bit heavy and difficult to maneuver about for cleaning (I preferred taking them out for cleaning.

I've been using paper towels since a bout with pinworms a few months back, planning to try shelf-liner next.

Jess: Thank you for answering my many questions! Haha. I'm leaning more towards the shelf liner because even you said they're a bit of a pain to clean up when their "messes" run into the cracks. I have reptile carpet now and it's a bit of a pain to clean since the wetness from their poop always dries in there! I wanted something more hard-surface-like, instead of a fuzzy carpet! You said the linolium (i think I spelled that correctly) comes in a natural stone looking print? Do you know if shelf liner has a print like that? I'm just curious, haha. But thanks!!!

MrWhite: Oh yeah, I don't like the idea of having to clean up poop from the cracks, either! I think I'm going to lean towards linolium or shelf liner, but I'll do a little more research and pricing of the two. But um, what do you mean UTH aren't supposed to be used for Beardies? A lot of people on here have them (Even Jess might, but I can't recall if she said she did or not...) and I just need a boost of warmth, but not on a burning hot temp!

Thebenior: Yeah, tile seems to be a little bit of a more "constant cleaning" bottom for my tank. They say papertowels are the best for them, but I really don't like the look of it. If I may ask, what did the transition of tiles to papertowels have to do with pinworms? (Sorry, I'm not very well-informed of Beardie diseases) please explain if you can? Haha

To all: THANKS GUYS!

I don't know of anyone that uses an UTH for extra heat. I have used them for gecko tanks because they don't need a basking light. I honestly don't think an UTH, working correctly, it will hurt them, but I worry that if the UTH fails and gets too hot, you could injure your dragon because they don't feel heat from below. It's the same reason electric heat-rocks are a no-no. I don't have accual experience with injuring a dragon with a faulty UTH, it's just my concern :wink:

Larry

MrWhite":5vhwqx79 said:

I don't know of anyone that uses an UTH for extra heat. I have used them for gecko tanks because they don't need a basking light. I honestly don't think an UTH, working correctly, it will hurt them, but I worry that if the UTH fails and gets too hot, you could injure your dragon because they don't feel heat from below. It's the same reason electric heat-rocks are a no-no. I don't have accual experience with injuring a dragon with a faulty UTH, it's just my concern :wink:

Larry

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Yeah. They're not on the ground much so I'm not really concerned about them getting burned. They have a lo-heat UTH that only gets to a certain temperature and then shuts off if something were to go wrong (such as the mat getting too cool or not funcutioning properly)

PumpkinJelly":2q30eof2 said:

Thebenior: Yeah, tile seems to be a little bit of a more "constant cleaning" bottom for my tank. They say papertowels are the best for them, but I really don't like the look of it. If I may ask, what did the transition of tiles to papertowels have to do with pinworms? (Sorry, I'm not very well-informed of Beardie diseases) please explain if you can? Haha

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It was just easier to do a thorough cleaning of everything with paper towels. He had a tendency to poop right between the tiles, necessitating me taking out 2 heavy 12"x12" tiles each time. Laziness has won out since, and he remains on paper towels.

Jess: You have very pretty vivs AND Beardies I see that In one of your tanks you have some type of bamboo-print shelf liner. May I ask where you got that? It looks really nice in there! It has more of a natural look to it. I like the tiles, but at the same time I like the shelf liner. If I can get shelf liner in a cool pattern like that bamboo-print one, I'd totally buy it (At a reasonable price, of course!)

Thebenior: Oh, I see(; Yeah I coulds see that papertowels are much easier to deal with, considering that they're disposable whenever your Beardie uses the bathroom on it. If I have an emergency or something, I'd probably use paper towels. Think Smarter not Harder (;

Jess":37is0xb0 said:

Thanks! I have fun decorating, LOL. The bamboo print one is my favorite too. I just got it for my leopard gecko's viv, and it was less than $5 at Walmart for a pretty big roll of it. I have more than enough left to replace the liner in her 20 gal once this stuff gets icky.

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YAY! I have a bunch of Walmarts all around me! I'm going to get some the next time I tag along to a trip to Walmart! Luckily, I have $20 and that's plenty! If by any chance you would know, would one roll be enough to cover my entire 40 Gallon Breeder tank? Or would I have to buy two! It'll be good to know so I don't have to make two walmart trips! LOL!