Substrate for the messiest beardie ever.

[amime]

I have a rescue beardie (Megumi) who is a MESSY GIRL.

My first beardie Kenshin is a very tidy boy. He doesn't like to poop in his viv and when he does he steers clear of it. Megumi was very dirty when I got her and now I see why. She likes to poop and then she just doesn't care at all if she tromps through it and smears it all over her tiles, in her water, on the walls etc.

I've got her on tile (which is what I use for Kenshin and LOVE). This keeps everything moist and sitting there ready for her to smear to her hearts content. I'm wondering if sand might be a good option for her. Do you think it will coat the poop and let it get smooshed down into the sand when she runs over it rather than smearing?

I really need to figure something out because it's quite tiring to have to do a full scrub practically daily (of her and the viv) because of the poop mess.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Livey]

definalty not sand, it harbos bacteria and will casuse much more problems,
i use paper towel on the locations that mine poop,
try to find out were she poops most and lay some sheets down

 

[RolandKyramere]

Kana used to like to muck in her poop, but now she almost always avoids it. Maybe Megumi will eventually start to avoid it.
Paper towels worked really well for me.

 

[amime]

Thanks for the suggestion. She doesn't seem to perfer pooping in anyone place yet. I'll lay down some paper towels and maybe that'll dry it out better so she can't smear so much.

I forgot to mention before that I feed her insects by hand so she never has a chance to ingest any of her substrate if I were to put her on play sand. Sounds like that may not be the best anyway though.

 

[BadCon]

My female is the same way. If she poops, its while she is glass dancing, and hence smears it everywhere. If I don't get it the second she goes, its going to end up on everything. To combat this, towels in her most common "go" spots seem to help keep the mess down, as the absorb the liquid, and you can quickly grab them and put down a new one.

 

[Starforce2]

reptile carpet. It's washable. Mine seems to poop in one spot seemingly on top of other piles of poop. I've not cleaned him in 2 weeks and all the poop is in one corner. I need a scooper really.

 

[acwood04]

I think you need to get a scraper or wash the carpet, or get a few and interchange them. If you leave poop in the viv they can get parasites. Sand is not a good idea because of the bacteria either.

 

[Starforce2]

I generaly was mine out each week but he had so many tiny uneaten crickets in there I didn't want to mess with fishing them out. I gotta get one of those toy bug vacs. Someone linked me to one on amazon a while back but I hafta look it up again. Basicly the weather was bad and I decided to go to the much closer petland rather than petco for crickets so you get all that baby crap with your medium crickets. It's had enough to get them into the lizzards cage without killing them the first time around, let alone catch them again once in. I pulled the basking rock so they cant hide and they way he eats he should have cought them all in the next day or so.


Also, more on topic, another advantage to reptile carpet is that the poop so to cement itself fairly well to the carpet and dry quite quickly (maybe your viv is too humid if it doesn't?) then again mine poops in an area almost directly under the light. So within a few minutes it's already drying to the carpet and he can't smear it all over.

 

[pudden318]

that is discusting, would you like to sleep in a room with a big dried out pile of your poop in the corner, i think not. i feel sorry for your dragon and your lucky if he doesnt get sick from all the bacteria breeding in the mound of poop. :x

 

[ThePrincess]

Atleast she doesn't eat her poo poo like my Baby does and he's not A baby anymore. Not all the time but most of time. I like the repti- sand alot. It covers the poo, and I just use a small sifting scoop to pick it up everyday. But your going to want to replace the sand every 2 months or sooner depending on what can't all be sifted and plus you wouldn't want all those germs to build up. Yuk! Oh and don't use if they eat poo. Couldn't figure out why mine wouldn't go everyday ended up having to bath him everyday untill I saw it..... The Poo Poo Eater! LOL. Don't troll me

 

[Livey]

Just dont use sand at all!
impactation, and the faff that comes with it??
its just not good, looks good but health wise not so good.
Did you try the paper towels?

 

[acwood04]

I agree it is horrible to let poop build up in the viv. That'd be like pooping in the corner of my room and leaving it. Not to mention all the bacteria. If your beardie eats the poop or has eaten the poop. He/she most likely has parasites. That is disgusting. If someone had a dog and they let the dog do this, the dog would eventually get sick and die. This will happen to your beardies too. Its sad that people actually leave the poop in there or let them eat it! I cant believe that. As I type this i'm lookin over at my beardie and he is lookin at me like i'm crazy. Once he poops he goes to the other side of his viv and glass dances, both because of the smell and the actual poop. Your dragons can "kind of" be trained to not do these things..

 

[Starforce2]

bacteria and fungi need moisture to fester. since the stuff is bone dry and really isn't even emitting oder I'm not woried about that. he is also pooping in an area smaller than that of his water bowl. After 3 turds I noticed this and wanted to see if the pattern held. He actualy does it on top of previous ones. The cage is very big yet he uses one small area for poop. He's by no means wallowing in it or laying in it ect. The guys beardie who smears it all over probably spends more time in it's poo and is at greater helth risk than mine so can we not turn his thread in to a rip on me for not getting around to cleaning the cage this weekend?

 

[spkdrgn]

A beardie can't get parasites from eating poo the parasite would already have had to been ingested from food or another source to have been in the poo(parasites don't just appear in poo). I have had my beardie on calci sand since he was a baby three years ago and have never had a problem with it . I change all the sand about every six months to a year. I think it would be much easier to sift sand than to take paper towels and wipe down a cage smeared in poo. Bacteria does need moisture to multiply and sand is very dry, but you still shouldn't let the poo build up for multiple reasons. Just my two cents.

 

[Livey]

what if the beardie knocks the water dish? the bacteria will spread in the sand, causing a hazard, an cleaning sifting sand ever other week is not my cup of tea, it would be so much easier to get tile wipe it down or change a paper towel

I change all the sand about every six months to a year. I think it would be much easier to sift sand than to take paper towels and wipe down a cage smeared in poos.

but your never gunna get every bit of poop? so which the sand will harbour bacteria and leaving it that long most definalty!