kitty litter (fine grain) as substrate, good idea or not?

[Brendonsalzer]

kitty litter (fine grain) as substrate, good idea or not?

 

[klak1212]

Do NOT use kitty litter, dont know why, just heard it somewhere, maybe somebody could back me up on this?

 

[nesta's mommy]

i'm gonna have to agree with klak.. if you notice how kitty litter bunches up into little balls when wet.... it could happen in your beardie's stomach.

 

[Brendonsalzer]

that was my main concern. them eating it

 

[Catalyst]

I would never use it with my dragon. You don't know what's in it and it can be quite dangerous if your dragon ingests it. If you really want to go with a loose substrate (and only if your dragon is an adult) check out sifted silica free children's playsand or a coconut fiber based bedding like bed-a-beast.

 

[Judah'sHuman]

Sorry to go off on to my own little rant...
I wish they made a cost effective washed play sand that is lighter in color in bulk bags. I have only found an ugly dark play sand. I have seen a reptile sand that doesn't have calcium but it is little 10-15 lbs bags for cha ching$$$. blah! I only use sand in a small area of Judah's viv, but when I bought him froma really nice school teacher, she had this really fine white, pretty sand in there. I asked her about it, she said it is washed play sand they got it from Home Depot in a huge 50 lbs bag. The only stuff I found was Quartz sand that looked like what they had. :x I certainly hope that was not what they were using! Anywho...That's all i have to say, carry on :lol:

 

[glitch_in_the_system]

You can find light colored play sand all over the place it all just depends on what kind of stone the sand is made from. Sandstone or Limestone creates light colored sand I would just look around. I would never use kitty litter. Why would you want to? It isn't safe to allow fecal matter to sit in the tank and it is certainly not healthy for them to ingest. I haven't had much luck with particle substrate. I have tried Bed-a-beast, playsand (multiple times), and loam (sand/topsoil) and I have never received good results. Playsand ended up being a pain and made the cage dusty plus my dragon spent as little time on it as possible. Bed-a-beast she seemed to enjoy and dig in but she ended up getting yellow fungus while on it because it raised the humidity too much. Loam made my room smell like a freshly tilled farm field and whenever it got wet it smelled like rain. Personally I will stick to tile with my dragon and when I get a second reptile later down the line, which will likely be a blue-tongued skink, I will probably use bed a beast again but be very careful about allowing it to get wet. Aspen chips are also recommended for SKINKS. After 4 years of owning my dragon and reading countless articles particle substrates seem to be a big waste of time for Dragons. There are few if any advantages and loads of disadvantages.