WHO USES SAND?!

[mgtorrice]

i am curious if there is anyone who uses sand and likes it? i just got my beardies new tank and i am going to go for half tile, half sand. i do not feed him in his tank. i use a feeder bin that works quite nicely:] no stray crix running around! and there for i have no worries of impaction. he isnt all that young either i dont think. he is about 13 inches, head to tail. also, i just wanted to make sure no one had any problems withkeeping it clean? and ive heard people put it in baking sheets and put the sand in the oven?
can anyone enlighten me on that?
thanks!

 

[jortiz9758]

I have always had my dragons on half playsand and half tile. I have never had any problems. I feed the greens to them on the tile side of the Viv and just place them in a bowl, and feed bugs outside of the viv.
I am also super anal about keeping it clean and I use a sifter to sift out any loose greens and what have you along with wiping down the tiles daily. I dont worry about poop too much because my dragons go in water everyday during bath time without fail. :mrgreen:

 

[ZombieAndy]

Although i dont get my first beardie til friday this week (i cant wait) ive decided to go with sand, as the guy in the shop said, bearded dragons are from the dessert, so their most comfortable in sand.

I have a topic of my own which has moved onto this subject, which i see you've already seen and posted in lol!

 

[Hopefulresearch]

well, that guy at the shop is just trying to make $. Every one who uses loose substrate should see this. It's an autopsy on beardies that have died from impaction. Gross and sad! So, why risk it?

 

[jortiz9758]

I tend to disagree on the sand or "loose substrate" issue. I really dont like to scare people right away on the issue of loose substrate. Many people including breeders have used sand successfully, more so than those who have had problems with it. I agree that you can have a problem with sand if you are not careful with it. People who will just throw food into the dragon's enclosure are going to have many more problems with it than those who feed it outside in a sperate bin.

The decision is totally up to the owner to make knowing what the risks might be if not careful.

PS you forgot the link:
http://mrskingsbioweb.com/beardeddragngrossanatomy.htm

 

[Hopefulresearch]

Oops!... :shock:

 

[Dantro]

I too have used sand on all my beardies above a certain age, but i know breeders who raise babies on sand also, it just comes down to personal choice.
I have never had a problem with sand, and will use it again soon as my beardie is old enough. I do usually use a clear eating area, made from a single tile or slate.

 

[mgtorrice]

I dont worry about poop too much because my dragons go in water everyday during bath time without fail. :mrgreen:

HOWWWW on earth do you do that! i cannnott for the life of me get mooshuu to poo in his bath!

 

[DragonsInKansas]

i also do half sand half tile. I have never had any issues. I keep the sand clean and have been lucky enough that the dragons always poo on the tile side if they poo in their viv at all. I feed her insects out of the cage and I feed her salad on a plate on the tile side.

 

[jortiz9758]

I dont worry about poop too much because my dragons go in water everyday during bath time without fail. :mrgreen:

HOWWWW on earth do you do that! i cannnott for the life of me get mooshuu to poo in his bath!

I have been successful with keeping a strict schedule with them....they go into the warm bath everyday at noon.
Without fail they will now poop in the water. I have always done it with my young dragons and have been lucky enough to train Meathead whom I just got at a year old to do the same.

try and put them in the water at the exact same time everyday and soon enough they will go in the water ...works for me all the time. Makes it much easier to handle them thru the day without worry of having a poop accident

 

[mgtorrice]

haha alright i'll try that out

 

[Neromom39]

I used to use sand for my dragon Nero... I too was diligent in keeping everything as clean as possible. But when you go through two rounds of pinworms and coccidia and two rounds of meds (I'm talking 2 months of this), you tend to think differently. Once I replaced the sand with tile, after the third round of meds, he was clean. It can get pretty expensive.

 

[glitch_in_the_system]

I used to use sand, but my dragon actually seems to hate the sand. When sand was her base substrate she always stayed off of it on her rocks or driftwood. BD's are not really desert animals. They live in a very hot/dry environment but the ground is much more solid than pure sand. Its rocky and has plant life. I personally never had any problems with Obie when she was on the sand/topsoil mix other than an infection. I switched because she seemed to hate it, it was a pain to keep clean, and it doesn't look nearly as nice as slate, or other stone, tiles. If your ADULT dragon seems to love its loose substrate than great.

 

[Amellio]

I used sand and I didn't have any problems as far as inpaction goes. On the other hand, it's a lot easier for them to get sick because I think of sand as a bacteria pool. Even when you keep it clean theres always going to be that change of them catching something. One of my beardie's got parasites and it was a mess to get rid of. As soon as I took her off the sand though, she got better.

It's a personal choice really and this subject is one that is a big controversy.

 

[Hopefulresearch]

What I don't understand about this whole argument is, if there is any chance to endanger your pet, why even take the chance? I know sand looks better, but think about the beardie. I nature they don't even live on loose sand!