calcium sand

[skellington777]

is it ok to use it??
my beardie is about 10 inches

 

[Blind]

No. Caci-sand is NEVER safe to use with any beardie of any length. Your options right now are repti-carpet, non-adhesive shelf liner, slate tile, butcher paper, news paper, and paper towels.

When your beardie reaches a length of 16 inches it is safe to use sifted non-silica based play sand.

 

[vickson420]

Blind is correct no calcisand,reptilesand,vitasand or anything like that is safe.Solid substrate is the absolute safest way to go.

 

[skellington777]

No. Caci-sand is NEVER safe to use with any beardie of any length. Your options right now are repti-carpet, non-adhesive shelf liner, slate tile, butcher paper, news paper, and paper towels.

When your beardie reaches a length of 16 inches it is safe to use sifted non-silica based play sand.

here is the thing
i work at petsmart and ive had my bearded dragon for about 10 months now and one of the associates there said that she has 3 bearded dragons in 3 different tanks. she has had one for 4 years, one for 3 years, and one for 1 and a half years. i know that sand may impact the stomach but if a bearded dragon eats too much of anything, that can impact their stomach as well. ive also asked a lot of customers to see what they have theirs on and just about all of them said calci sand or walnut shells. and some of them say that theyve been having bearded dragons their whole life and the only reason that they have died was because of old age. i was talking to this one lady and she said that her bearded dragon lived for 17 years and had it in sand.

 

[andymkthxlol]

17 years? Can bearded dragons even live that long?


As for sand, you do what you want for your bearded dragon. Not using sand is like abstaining from [reference/word removed by moderator, please bare that in mind when posting], It's the only 100% way to prevent impaction in beardies. My little guy is just about 15 inches, and I'm gonna put him on sand soon. I will be sure to do it on a weekend where I can closely monitor him to make sure he doesn't straight eat it. I've seen plenty of healthy long living bearded dragons on sand, solid substrate is just safer. Bearded dragons come from the desert, so in their natural habitat they live on sand and loose substrate as well.

 

[peera]

Bearded dragons come from the desert, so in their natural habitat they live on sand and loose substrate as well.

This is NOT true. They live in the desert, yes, but the areas of Australia they live in the ground is hard pan. Tile is much closer to the natural substrate they live on. Impaction is also a leading cause of death right behind predators in wild dragons, which have a life expectancy of about 4-5 years.

Calci-sand is also incrediably expensive. Sand is a breeding ground for bacteria, so if you use it you have to do a through cage cleaning every month, and that really adds up. Why not just make the 1 time investment of $15 on tile? One of mine was kept on calci-sand and she smelled really unpleasent when I first got her. It took a month after getting her off the junk to get the smell to go away.

If for some reason you really feel your dragon MUST be on sand, use washed, silica-free play sand. It's much easier for them to digest, and a 50 lb bag is only about $5.

My feeling has always been that sure, some people never have a problem, but if even 1 in 100 dragons kept on sand ultimatly dies from it, is it really worth the risk? Why wouldn't you want to do what's best for them right off the bat, not after you've had complications?

 

[Catalyst]

The problems with calcium sand are:
- way too expensive
- when it gets wet it clumps up and then dries hard, so it can act like cement in your dragon's digestive system if he ingests enough
- despite what the packaging claims, its not digestible
- the calcium in the sand makes your dragon more likely to lick it and cause an impaction

The benefits of calcium sand are:
..... none that I know of, other than perhaps it looks pretty.

The problem with crushed walnut shells is that the individual little pieces have sharp edges which can damage your dragon's delicate insides if ingested.

Sure people have used these things, and some do so successfully, but there have also been many illnesses and deaths from these two substrates and many consider these the two substrates that are absolute no's for a dragon. There are other loose substrates that allow your dragon to dig and which have the same look as sand or walnut without the risks. You can use washed and sifted silica free children's playsand or coconut fiber based substrates like bed-a-beast. There's a risk with any loose substrate, but the risk with these is much lower than the calcium sand or walnuts. It also takes more vigilence to keep the bedding clean since waste easily soaks in and bad bacteria can flourish. Solid substrates are a good option - slate tiles are popular, easy to clean, pose no health risks to your dragon, and look great.

 

[JRyan]

Ugh I am so frustrated.
I also work at Petsmart, and didn't know that sand wasn't okay.
I have my beardie in a 75 gallon tank and its full of sand, like 4 GD bags, and those things are $15 a piece, and I am so aggravated that I have to now take him off of it and waste all of that money that I spent on the sand.
What would you say is the cheapest thing to like his cage with?
Is tile expensive?

 

[peera]

No, tile is very affordable. Home Depot usually has slate for sale for about $2 per sq ft, so you're looking at a 1 time investment of $16 for 8 sq ft. Having a couple back up tiles for when you remove one or 2 for deep cleaning is a good idea as well, but it's still the cheapest way to go any way you look at it, since everything else needs replaced eventually.

 

[h2simms]

they get in there sistumin the wild why not in captivity???

 

[baskingbeardie1]

they get in there sistumin the wild why not in captivity???

as stated earlier, impaction is the second cause of death among wild dragons. they don't live on sand, also which was stated earlier. they live in hardened ground in australia.

 

[vickson420]

they get in there sistumin the wild why not in captivity???

Actually first this sand is modeled from the red dune sand in Australia which is carbonate based amazingly enough that is the one place you will most likely not find a beardie.Second the life span in the wild is seriously short so why would we want to model what they do and do not do in the wild?

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

I went to home depot today and there was tile as cheap as 43 cents per peice. I got enough tile for my future viv for less than 20 bucks. And that is life long!

 

[vickson420]

Thats good and yes it is forever!