Is it at any point okay to have sand or dirt substrate for bearded dragons? Nazar will dig under the puppy pad in her tank and she seems to like being covered up when she sleeps, she has a washcloth in there now and if I cover her up at night she doesn't seem to want to dig as much? Could I get a Tupperware container of reptile sand for her to dig in for an hour or two out of the day or is sand completely off limits? Is there anything else I can give her to dig in?
You can always try holding her at night, wrapping her in a nice soft fleece blankie, which will
eventually spoil her! LOL
As far as sand for play & digging goes, a lot of people do provide that for their dragons. I only
recommend the washed & sifted playsand but not the reptisand or calcisand sold in petstores..
The washed & sifted playsand has no calcium so if ingested it wont literally harden into a mass
of cement like substance, impacting them.
A lot of them do love to dig!
Sand is controversial. Some people use it without issue and some use it with devastating effects. I find it to be stinky and messy so I prefer solid substrates. My guy likes to burrow when he sleeps too which is tough with a tile substrate. I think burrowing behavior is pretty common and natural for them so it's good to find ways to accommodate it. I've found that using small fleece blankets works really well because it allows for burrowing while being soft/comfortable for them and easy to clean up in the washer.