Dig Box?

[itspebbles]

My four month baby beardie has taken it upon himself to try and burrow under his paper towels at the moment and I'm thinking it's time to introduce a digging box, as the paper towels are now being shredded with his digging. So, what can I use? I currently have things like topsoil, sand and coco fiber but I have access to other mediums too, what would work as a good digging medium, what ratios, and what should I put it in?

Any suggestions are helpful!

 

[CooperDragon]

That is fairly common behavior for them, especially when they want to burrow in for sleep. You can use a play sand and topsoil mixture, but that can get pretty messy and I advise doing that in a plastic bin kept outside of the enclosure. Those are most often used for egg laying.

Inside the enclosure, I like using fleece blankets. You can get small personalized ones from Pampered Beardies rescue and they are great. You can also use scraps of fleece that you can probably get cheaply from a craft store. They are soft and won't get caught up on nails. They are too tough to tear up like paper, and they are easy to clean by putting them in the washer if they get soiled. Just pile some up in an area of the enclosure and let him dig and burrow through them.

You can also achieve a healthy digging medium by building a bioactive enclosure. These take a bit of planning and work in order to get started, so certainly a big jump up from using fleece. They provide an enclosed ecosystem that allows for digging and will help reclaim waste. These are good if you have enough space and don't often take your dragon out of their enclosure for enrichment.

 

[itspebbles]

That is fairly common behavior for them, especially when they want to burrow in for sleep. You can use a play sand and topsoil mixture, but that can get pretty messy and I advise doing that in a plastic bin kept outside of the enclosure. Those are most often used for egg laying.

Inside the enclosure, I like using fleece blankets. You can get small personalized ones from Pampered Beardies rescue and they are great. You can also use scraps of fleece that you can probably get cheaply from a craft store. They are soft and won't get caught up on nails. They are too tough to tear up like paper, and they are easy to clean by putting them in the washer if they get soiled. Just pile some up in an area of the enclosure and let him dig and burrow through them.

You can also achieve a healthy digging medium by building a bioactive enclosure. These take a bit of planning and work in order to get started, so certainly a big jump up from using fleece. They provide an enclosed ecosystem that allows for digging and will help reclaim waste. These are good if you have enough space and don't often take your dragon out of their enclosure for enrichment.

Thank you so much! I definitely wanted to try a bioactive when he's big enough- I have done tropicals in the past and haven't attempted arid yet. As for fleece blankets, we ordered some samples yesterday for him for him to try, they're baby blanket scraps so should be good and soft for him.

I'll try making a soil/sand dig box for him and let him have a go at it. Maybe it'll help get some of his excess energy out and let me hold him without him wanting to nose dive off my hands.

Thanks again!