Digging ideas

[thebearded56]

My dragon just digs most often and I feel bad for her. She just tears up her substrate. I used cabinet mats. I was thinking about maybe building a playbox so she can play and dig and she wouldn't have to eat the sand because I would only feed her in her tank and not in the playbox. But any other ideas would help. Thanks.

 

[FloraBelle]

I bought a small cat litter box and put washed play sand in it for a "dig box". Indy loves it.. goes in there and digs, digs, digs until he is tired of it. I am hoping it helps keep his claws a bit trimmed, too... I don't feed him in the dig box, of course.

 

[thebearded56]

I heard about play sand. What makes it different from the regular sand

 

[FloraBelle]

I think it's the size of the granules of sand... more natural and not as fine. I guess beardies have a tendency to eat other kinds of sand.. Play Sand is very inexpensive. Buy it at Lowe's or Home Depot... usually near the cement / concrete products. Comes in a 50 lb bag for about 4 bucks... I rinse it very well in a bucket and then let it dry out before I use it. Good Luck!

 

[Endernroseymom]

I have a young beardie. I got her a few weeks ago at petsmart. She's in a huge aquarium and I was wondering if I could do a dig box even though she's young? I heard play sand and top soil mixed? Is that ok? Do I need to wait till she's older?

 

[FloraBelle]

Hmmm.... I don't see why not as long as the topsoil is clean - I have heard to be careful not to use potting soils with the extra "stuff" in it.. vermiculite and those kinds of additives, but plain topsoil should be okay. I just went with the sand and Indy seems to like it. I may try the topsoil blend at some point, though.. just ot see if he likes it better.