calci-sand

[mitzi1956]

I.m hearing from most that sand is a big no-no due to compaction, but I'm a little confused how native beardies live in the wilds of the australian deserts feeding in sand all the time and survive just fine,but domestic ones cannot. can someone explain what the difference is ?

 

[luigismom]

I'm sure someone can explain it better but even though they refer to them as deserts, it's due to the low amount of rain those areas get. Their composition is more like fine packed down soil instead of sand that you would see in the Sahara. It does have quite a bit of vegetation. I'm only going by what I saw when I visited the Australian outback last year, what I imagined it would be like and what it actually was were quite different.

 

[Taterbug]

Calci-Sand is primarily calcium carbonate - not actually sand. My understanding is it is much more likely to clump together when wet and can form into obstructions in the digestive tract. Also, being calcium carbonate is throws of the pH of the digestive system and can cause other trouble with digesting and passing wastes.

As to dragon's wild environment - its very broad but for the most part doesn't have inescapable expanses of sand dunes as stated. Wild dragons are likely to encounter some sand, fine gravel and other such things, as well hard packed earth, rock, dessert grasses etc. Its suspected that ingesting small amounts of dirt (with or on food, since nothing is getting washed either) is a source of minerals for wild reptiles. Dragons in good health can pass some amount of natural debris, they are tough critters.

In captivity, the big problem arises husbandry isn't adequate and the dragon has trouble passing things that a healthy dragon would have no problem at all with.

 

[mitzi1956]

Thank you for that info, I chose to remove all that sand and just use a beige waterproof shelving paper. Better safe than sorry, plus I really like my beardies a lot and don't want to risk losing him. He just pooped yesterday while taking his aloe bath, so he should be good from here on out. Thanx again

 

[jarich]

Excellent answer Taterbug, wish there was a 'like' button here.