Hi , new to this site and wanted everyone's opinion on the best and safest substrate for my male and female dragons . As of now ,they are on crushed walnut shells which I got from my reptile store.. I now know is bad for them . I have done playground sand, reptile sand but I just wanted your opinions on carpet ? I was under the impression that the dragons could get their claws stuck in it . Please let me know what everyone thinks about what would be the best for my dragons !
If you have a large enclosure I'd say bioactive substrate is probably best but that takes quite a bit of effort to get started and perfected. It also requires space to build drainage layers so it's not the best option for a lot of enclosures.
I prefer solid substrate for most setups because it's easy to clean and keep sanitized. I use ceramic tile which I can pull out and clean and bake to sanitize. It's cheap and simple. The downside is that the surface is pretty hard. That's not a problem in every case but can be tough on their feet sometimes. I've found that putting some fleece down either as a blanket or as a pile of scraps to burrow in helps provide some relief. The fleece can be thrown in the washer/dryer to clean as needed. Fleece works better when they are trained to poop outside of their tank so it doesn't get soiled frequently.