Substrate!

Hey... Me again. I'm not really sure how to word all this...

I have a juvenile (12+ inches long....) who loves to dig. Originally, she was in sand. When I got her, I put her on carpet, because of obvious reasons... But last week, I decided I would set her new tank (90 gal) up with fine sand. Aware that it could cause problems, I watched her like a hawk. The first day, she wandered around, licking everything. I didn't feel right about the way she was doing it, since she kept doing it in the same spots. The next day, she calmed down with the licking. Still doing it, though. I kept worrying and watching her, but she always acted normal. My dad kept telling me that I was just trying to find something wrong... But that's a family issue.

Anyway... 2 days ago, she clawed at the glass like usual, so I took her out... Usually, she poops and then runs off. Only, she barely had any poop, it was hardish, and instead of running around like a madman, she sat still on my chest, closed her eyes, and went to sleep. Also unusual for her, but I gave her the benefit of a doubt and hoped she was just tired (I'm kind of nocturnal, so I have a light on at night... It's a low LED light and I always have her tank covered... wasn't sure if it still affected her or not).

Now onto yesterday! She hadn't eaten much the last few days, when normally she'd scarf everything in her sight. I took her out for a while, like usual. Tried to get her to poop (since I don't particularly like when she poops on me, or the floor), but it looked a bit harder for her to do. She managed it, and it was more than the last time she did it... But it was still the same hardness. Also, there was barely any smell. That's when I made a clear decision to get rid of the sand. I currently have her back in her original tank (it's only 20 gallons, but it's temporary), with carpet.

I guess my questions are... Is it going to be easy to have her bounce back now that she's off the sand?
What can I use for substrate, other than carpet? Like I said, she loves to dig. I've heard there are some actual edible substrates that don't cause impaction, but I don't even know where to start with that.

I know some people have been perfectly fine with sand, and some haven't... I had a small hope that she would do okay with it. Guess not!

I suggest offering her some extra water to help rehydrate her and to help her pass any sand she ingested. For the main tank, I suggest using a solid substrate like ceramic tile or non adhesive shelf liner. You can set up an area with shredded polar fleece or similar so she can dig around in that and it doesn't pose an ingestion risk and won't catch her claws. You could build an external dig box using a rubbermaid bin filled with a combination of wet play sand and topsoil for her. She may enjoy some supervised digging time in there. It gets messy though so she'll need a bath when she's done. Dig boxes are helpful for when they lay eggs too.