My Enclosure!

[peera]

Hmm... It may have been another member, Kirby was just the name that came to mind.

 

[lizardcollector]

Strange the guy in the shop said is the best substrate for beardies because they live in the dessert in Australia so the sand emulates that.. anyway yeah I think she will be able to get 6" away from the UVB, the viv is only 2ft tall and there is a peice of wood running almost the length of it that she will be able to climb on.

Um well think like this. he says its fine for beardies because it is australian. he is just trying to sell it because in the wild beardies live more on rock arrangements and the ground isnt loose like dunes its hard. beardies old and young likes tasting everything they can and sand impactation can take a while to form so you wont see it straight away. i work with carpets because i find them good tiles and those are good to but with my dragons i do not use any loose substrate at all. i have had to many long nights with impaction. yes sand looks nice and for some reasons the put beardies on the packiging. but that is marketting for you. never believe a pet shop person or packiging without prior research. it will pay off in the future i promise you.

 

[ZombieAndy]

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion but, in the long run, sand is a horrible substrate to use, and if you care anything about your beardie then you would notice that the risks far out weigh the 'prettiness' it brings to your viv.

I Dont think its very fair or right to suggest that i dont care about my beardie becuase ive chose to use sand. ive already said that im prepared to clean the viv out everyday and totally clean the viv and change the sand every couple of weeks or whenever required.. also another couple of members in this topic have said that they use sand with no problems, in fact more than one person has stated that the chance of impaction is minimal and in fact one person said their beardie showed signs of stress when they changed from sand on the advice of this board and had to change back.

 

[Hopefulresearch]

Well, everyone has their own opinion. Mine is against sand. But you should probably look at this. This is very gross and sad. It is a disection of beardies that have died from impaction. http://mrskingsbioweb.com/beardeddragngrossanatomy.htm. So my question is, why even risk it?

 

[Claudiusx]

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion but, in the long run, sand is a horrible substrate to use, and if you care anything about your beardie then you would notice that the risks far out weigh the 'prettiness' it brings to your viv.

I Dont think its very fair or right to suggest that i dont care about my beardie becuase ive chose to use sand. ive already said that im prepared to clean the viv out everyday and totally clean the viv and change the sand every couple of weeks or whenever required.. also another couple of members in this topic have said that they use sand with no problems, in fact more than one person has stated that the chance of impaction is minimal and in fact one person said their beardie showed signs of stress when they changed from sand on the advice of this board and had to change back.

Even if you changed the sand every couple of weeks (which isn't enough) bacteria can still grow and multiply fast in that sand even if you changed it every week, which can get your beardie sick. Why keep paying a lot of money for something that can hurt your beardie? why not just be safe?

 

[jargonchipmunk]

no one is accusing you of not caring for your pet's welfare. (at least they shouldn't unless you say so yourself) the point is, that if you talked to 99 people that had no problems, and 1 person that watched their pet die a horrible, slow, agonizing death due to impaction, I would think the 1 would outweigh the 99. Just remember, Sand in a beardie enclosure is for YOU, not them. Slate tiles, carpet, shelf liner, newspaper, etc etc etc there are a myriad of choices of good ground cover that have no risk of killing your beloved pet.

The one person who had a stressed beardie due to changing their environment was exactly that. Changing their environment. The same thing happens anytime you make big changes in a beardie's home. Relocation stress some people call it, but in that case I think it should have been called tough love, and should have been stuck with for the health of the beardie.

Sand vs. not sand is a much argued topic, but in *most* cases, the ones argueing for sand as being a "good" substrate like it for themselves, not their beardies. Dogs love chocolate, but we don't feed it to them. Same thing.

 

[Hopefulresearch]

Couldn't have said it better myself!

 

[Lk4sturns]

Finally somebody show they don't live in sand.From what I read and see on T.V. it always look like alot red clay was mix in with the sand.Plus there natural soil is compacted down so it would make sense to take sand and bake it hard.I had lizard and snakes for over 30 years and never had problem with impacting.As was mentioned earlier if eaten in small amounts there no problem(by the way calcium sand is almost same calcium put on insects).As I used sand for long time ( never had Beardie till now) I found less active lizard's or snakes it fine,more active or my Beardie makes way to much dust and I can't think it could be o.k. to breath long term and someone before even mentioned there eyes,makes sense.I also found with sand that it seems with the dust to dry out skin more and did not like way she shed compared to walnut shells using now(I try Vit-sand from petco,price is whole other story).Interested what everybody thinks of walnut shells (careful how I feed so very little consumed,never had impact problem and low dust.

 

[Claudiusx]

To be honest, walnut shells are even worse then sand. When beardies actually do injest walnut shells they are really jagged and not only cause impactions, but can cut the inner organs It is much safer just to use tile or shelf liner or repti carpet.

 

[Lk4sturns]

Walked away to feed dog and look what happen,I also need read and type faster.

 

[Lk4sturns]

I always been careful with feeding all my pets so they eat none or very little bedding.As mentioned before my first Beardie so they my be different long term with sand,I would tend to agree.I try sand and as mentioned before for different reasons I do not like it with them.Thankyou for your comments on walnut,can't find much info.,and I tired spending $30 walnut or $40 sand to fill my 40 gallon to 2 inch depth and keep extra around to fill in.My friend's laugh at me cause I take so much time scooping up poo with regular spoon so I get every little bit.But as I tell them when they want to hold Vic. cause they ask is it clean,what do you think but wash after.Sand and walnut alway harbor bacteria but I keep tanks always so clean that it's at low safe level.It's like when you go to pet store,unless I can wash up there I ain't touching nothing.I am going to try tile or carpet in next week.But how do clean carpet,take it out wash and let dry put second one in ?Always wonder about cleaning cause somedays they go twice so need three carpets ?Also someone mentioned before there did not like tile so went back to sand.It's very common for any lizard to not like or go along with change and that can be food most time or any other thing.

 

[jargonchipmunk]

the carpets, you will need multiples of as you stated so you can put a fresh one in while the other washes. With tiles, you can just wipe the mess up on the spot and you're golden. Otherwise, if you DON'T grout the tiles into the enclosure, you can simply remove the messy tile, give it a good scrub, and put it back in clean as ever. This is the main reason the tiles are so popular. Plus, they are great to help the beardie's file down their nails a bit.

 

[Aznrainbowdime]

i think i've already said this on this post.. lol too many going here !! ANyways.. if youre lazy like me ... easiest thing is use towels !! Once i got rid of my sand... i didnt have time to get repti carpet (they were out at pestmart)... and I didnt know where to get tiles at the time so i used my good ol towel ! lol . ITs kinda cute actually.. its brown so it goes with her rocks and woods, etc. But i am getting tiles eventually.. when i get a bigger viv...shes only in a 10 gallon, didnt think she'd grow this quick..... so dont judge me on my towel!!!!! oh plus easy clean up

 

[Lk4sturns]

Glad you mentioned towel.I put one on basking rock and likes it's semes more comfortable and only poo's in bedding.Towel was smart proable even more comfortable than carpet.I am tired of bedding so I am next week going with tile (slate seems to be choice) and proable do some different levels with rocks(still put towel on basking rock).Thanks for input.

 

[Aznrainbowdime]

no prob ! yeah towel looks comfy ! Sometimes i wish i could shrink myself to go in her viv !! lol. At first she didnt like it.. she wont set a foot on it.. she'd wake up and jump straight to her basking spot and wont even eat her crix as she has to hunt them. But i figured its just stress.. but shes fine now. I need to go to lowes to check out some tiles.. but hten i figure why go now when I dont know what size viv im gonna get next. So yeah... still waiting.