Ground English Walnut Shells Substrate

Hi! Can I use this for my young beardie cage?

Not advisable at all. Te walnut shell substrate has sharp edges and, if swallowed can cause intestinal injury and/or impaction. Very dangerous stuff.
You need to stay with a solid substrate for easy cleaning and to prevent impaction (bowel blockage). You can use rough texture floor tiles, nonadhesive shelf liner, paper towels or newsprint. This all prevents bacteria and, fungus from growing because they are easy to clean.

Hi NyKeri,

Please don't. Shells and sand (all types) are very bad for dragons. Best bet is tile or reptile carpet or a combination, since it seems like from reading posts that a hard surface might be rough on their joints if there's not a little give to it. What I've done for mine is 2 layers of a pet stain-resistant carpet from Home Depot over wood, though carpet over tile would achieve the same thing. There is actually a thing called reptile carpet that's supposed to be easy to set up & clean, but I went with the other kind of carpet (after finding one that wouldn't catch his nails) because his viv is about 4'x4' and reptile carpet can get expensive to cover that much real estate. The bottom layer is fixed to the 'floor' and the top layer is removable so that I can keep it clean, which is very important.

Ok thanks, I was sure.... I'll con I ur the I use the mat I have...

Not sure why everyone is against using sand or crushed walnut shells in the cage. If you think about it, these creatures evolved in a desert with sand and walnut shells basically turn to mush when it gets wet.
Can anyone tell me where I can find clinical data proving those statements against sand or walnut shells. Seems unlikely they would be sold by the largest pet stores if that were the case. After all, they don't want lawsuits and the bad publicity that would go with that. Even the bags are marked specifically for bearded dragons.
Thanks in advance for any information anyone can provide.

I can’t provide you the data you are asking for as I’ve not looked into this , but I wil say pet stores would absolutly sell it even if the data your asking for is out there. They sell mealworms for dragons despite that being a huge impaction risk, they sell ‘bearded dragon kits’ with red and bulb lights proven to disrupt their sleep and cause further issues.
If petshops ONLY sold what is best for bearded dragons hundreds of people a year wouldn’t end up with dragons with mbd, impaction, Eye issues , feeding issues and so forth every year.

OK, so it follows that in the wild, these lizards have a varied diet and as such should be fed a varied diet. Too much of any one thing is not good in any circumstance. We feed ours live food with fruit and vegetables and some dry food as well. He has grown to 18" in less than a year.
He sleeps well and I've even had to wake him to make sure he is OK. Oh, the red light used at night since he was purchased at a length of 4.5"
He was almost cooked by a heat pad under cage the second month we had him and we no longer use that type of warming device. So, the infrared light is all he has had since.
I guess it just boils down to what is hearsay and what is fact. I'm going with logic and fact over hearsay and opinion as that method has served me well for the past 50 years.
Thank you for your prompt response and I will continue my quest for clinical evidence one way or the other and will gladly post anything I can find of relevance here for you all to see.
Beard ON!

I don’t like heat pads either as beardies absorb heat from above - as with the sun.
The red lights you may have been lucky with yours but alot aren’t. I use a ceramic heat emmiter at night which I find better as it does not produce light.
At the end of the day people can only provide suggestions or advise - everyone ( including myself) will use that info / facts/ experience / whatever else to make our own decisions on husbandry and set ups. I know I’ve heard enough about red lights at night, loose subrates, heat pads etc to feel comfortable coming to the conclusions and overall decisions on what I want to do for my boy. At the end of the day you have to be comfortable with your decisions too

One of the very worse most dangerous / lethal substrates you can use …. heck you are better off using PlaySand as the only substrate that's worse then walnut shells is calcisand/vitasand.

jmac516":3onlamqz said:

Not sure why everyone is against using sand or crushed walnut shells in the cage. If you think about it, these creatures evolved in a desert with sand and walnut shells basically turn to mush when it gets wet.
Can anyone tell me where I can find clinical data proving those statements against sand or walnut shells. Seems unlikely they would be sold by the largest pet stores if that were the case. After all, they don't want lawsuits and the bad publicity that would go with that. Even the bags are marked specifically for bearded dragons.
Thanks in advance for any information anyone can provide.

Click to expand...

Another one who thinks the centre of Australia looks like the Sahara desert , which it doesn't , very little sandy desert in Australia , see this for more ACTUAL Pogona natural range habitat information : viewtopic.php?f=34&t=244236 , FACT = less than 10% of the natural range is even remotely sandy.