What's the opinion on excavator clay?

[Ancline]

For now my bearded dragon is on tile, in a custom enclosure that was meant to be added onto when (she gets older)/(I have more money), she's probably only 3 months old, 9.75in long. But I'm thinking maybe a year from now when she's all grown up I'll add a new "room" to the current enclosure that has excavator clay by zoo med on the bottom. So she'd still have a 4 foot by 2 foot tiled enclosure and then have a 2 foot by 2 foot enclosure with the excavator clay. I was thinking this because even though my beardis is young she really, really loves to dig and burrow. When I hold her while I watch TV she tries to burrow into my chest scratching at me and pushing into me. I stuck a pile of hand towels in her terrarium and she digs her way into it and snuggles there at night, super cute. I could hear her scratching inside her hide at night trying to burrow into the tile when she didn't have the pile of towels.

I was thinking the added room would be good for her when she's older because it can satisfy her itch to dig and if she really is a she then it will also act as a large dig box for if/when she lays unfertilized eggs.

Does anyone have anything to say about excavator clay? Is it going to risk impaction even if I only feed her in the tiled portion of her enclosure? I've been told absolutely no loose substrates for a dragon under a year old, but after a year the risk of impaction is minimal because the particles are small enough to pass properly

Is there any other substrate that may be better/less risky for an adult dragon that really wants to burrow? I just want to do all my research and mulling over possibilities before she's an adult and possibly needs somewhere to lay eggs. Suggestions? Comments?

 

[GlassesTho]

I tested excavator clay out these past couple of weeks and I noticed a couple things to consider:

It does hold it's shape, like it claims, but it's not Smooth. It's very crumbly. It's not dusty like sand, though. Just very crumbly. So if there's like a hill or a tunnel or something it'll have little round pebbles of excavator clay that have rolled off and gathered at the base after a week or so lol

I never saw my beardie purposefully eating sand for the first couple days I had him on that- but he did intentionally walk around and take BITE FULLS of the excavator clay when it was moist. I think he liked the shiny flakes in the soil. (obviously I removed him until it was completely dry...which it says to do on the packaging anyway. But it took a couple days to dry completely so you'll need somewhere to set your dude/dudette up until it's ready.)

dubias can burrow into it. Not very far down, but just enough that they're camouflaged. so if you DO feed in the same tank and they 'escape' being eaten...xD you're going to have to go dubia fishing.

I haven't seen Skywalker "burrow" but he has, a couple times, scratched around in the dirt before bed time and slept in the "bed" he made. So I do think he likes it despite some of the pitfalls. So if your beardie ALREADY likes to dig, it would probably be great, especially since you're not doing the whole tank?

 

[Ancline]

I tested excavator clay out these past couple of weeks and I noticed a couple things to consider:

It does hold it's shape, like it claims, but it's not Smooth. It's very crumbly. It's not dusty like sand, though. Just very crumbly. So if there's like a hill or a tunnel or something it'll have little round pebbles of excavator clay that have rolled off and gathered at the base after a week or so lol

I never saw my beardie purposefully eating sand for the first couple days I had him on that- but he did intentionally walk around and take BITE FULLS of the excavator clay when it was moist. I think he liked the shiny flakes in the soil. (obviously I removed him until it was completely dry...which it says to do on the packaging anyway. But it took a couple days to dry completely so you'll need somewhere to set your dude/dudette up until it's ready.)

dubias can burrow into it. Not very far down, but just enough that they're camouflaged. so if you DO feed in the same tank and they 'escape' being eaten...xD you're going to have to go dubia fishing.

I haven't seen Skywalker "burrow" but he has, a couple times, scratched around in the dirt before bed time and slept in the "bed" he made. So I do think he likes it despite some of the pitfalls. So if your beardie ALREADY likes to dig, it would probably be great, especially since you're not doing the whole tank?

Yeah, dubia fishing is why I got rid of the fake plants in the enclosure, plus it seems like my beardie is eating more since I removed them so I suspect the fake plants were actually causing stress. But I think I can keep most of them in the main enclosure by placing tape all around the border so they can't climb out. The way I have it planned I should be able to block off the excavator clay enclosure while it dries. The basking spot and UV will still be in the main enclosure. Here are some pictures of the current enclosure:



Enclosure with add on:




The curved piece will have a hinge and lock so I don't have to awkwardly root around while setting up the tunnels. Hopefully my beardie won't be too set on eating the dirt too, my beardie once took a big mouthful of calcium supplement when I left it open. I never saw her move so fast and eat something so swiftly as that calcium supplement. Well, that was probably her weeks worth of calcium in one day, haha. Definitely proves that calcium sand would be a bad idea because my beardie would just eat it all up and get impacted.

 

[GlassesTho]

that enclosure design looks AWESOME. It sounds like you have everything worked out really well....honestly, I think your beardie would love it.

 

[charmander16]

Any update on this? From the sounds of it your plan was to use the clay loose, not to wet it and form it. If you have been using it as loose dig substrate, how did it go? I'm also considering this for a dig box.

 

[Ancline]

Any update on this? From the sounds of it your plan was to use the clay loose, not to wet it and form it. If you have been using it as loose dig substrate, how did it go? I'm also considering this for a dig box.

Sorry for the late reply, I've only just gotten arround to making a dig box with the excavator clay due to moving and graduating college I've been quite bussy and short on money.

Anyways, I just introduced a litterbox full of excavator clay into the vivarium. I let the clay only partially dry so my beardie could dig for himself a little bit. Well instead of digging he preoccupied himself with licking and trying to eat the excavator clay. I don't think that's a good thing to let my beardie do (threatens impaction) so I took the box of clay out and I'm going to let it completely dry out and harden. Maybe then he'll be less inclined to eat it. If my beardie will only want to eat the excavator clay I'll just completely scrap the idea of the addition I was going to build.