Is my Substrate safe enough?

[Michaelm1990]

I switched from woodchip to calci-sand a few months back as i was trying to get a bit closer to my beardies natural habitat and someone a bit more aesthetically pleasing.
I did a bit of reading up as i was.told normal sand can be quite bad for them causing impaction etc but the calci sand was supposedly easier to digest if it were to be inadvertently swallowed but i have been recently been told that its not that safe
I never feed him on the substrate as i use the other half of my tank which is stone tiles to minimise digestion of it.
He likes to burrow in the sand at night and he seema happier in general with the sand so i was wondering if i could get advice on wether to change back to woodchip or if theres any alternatives or if i can stick witch my calci sand
Thanks

 

[Goonie]

[Moved from General to Enclosures]

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In my opinion, calci-sand is worse than wood chips as it clumps into a hard ball when wet, which would cause serious impaction to a beardie's digestive tract.
Unless you plan on changing the loose substrates weekly, or remove the sections which are soiled, you are doing nothing but adding contamination to your beardie's enclosure.

There's an article (What Substrate Should I Use?!) under the Enclosures forum that details different types of substrates. As there are physical dangers to everything, it's really a personal choice.

 

[CooperDragon]

I agree. The sand is difficult to keep sanitary. If it gets pooped in or gets wet then it starts to harbor bacteria which can cause health issues.

Their natural habitat covers a vast area but the part I've seen contains tough hard packed red clay with tall grasses and bushes. The tougher substrate is more natural than loose sand for the most part. This is a photo I took just outside of Adelaide.

Since your guy likes to dig, I suggest putting some fleece strips in the tank so he can dig into a pile and make a nice burrow. The fleece shouldn't get stuck in his nails and it's easy to throw in the wash if it gets dirty. You can also put together a dig box outside of the tank using moist play sand and organic topsoil. Give him some time in the box and it'll give him a chance to dig a lot.

If you want to take it another step you could create a bioactive substrate. This takes a bit more work as you're setting up and balancing an ecosystem. This allows space to dig and burrow a bit but requires a larger tank because you need to set up drainage layers.

 

[Michaelm1990]

Thanks for the information guys. I have noticed since i bought my dragon there is so much conflicting information out there that makes it near impossible to decide what is right or best practice
I will take this into consideration and i will probably put more of the stone tiles i have down in place