 Recent Herp Discussion | | | | | | | |  | 
17-Oct-07, 09:33 AM
|  | Subscriber | Join Date: Aug-06 Location: Brisvegas | | | Fine sand and knobtail geckos
I have a question for other knobtail keepers about the grade of sand they keep their geckos on, and if they've had any problems.
I used to keep mine on quite rough red sand, but with my new enclosures changed to very fine white playsand from Bunnings.
Having made this change I've noticed a change in the poo-ing habits of a couple of my geckos.
Most droppings have been a normal size for my specimens, which is about 2cms long and about 6mm wide, with the usual white urea spot, comprised of mostly cricket matter and a little dirt. However, now that the lizards are on the new fine sand, I've found that at least two of my geckos seem to be eating a LOT of sand with their food. A couple of my levis, seem abnormally fat and heavy for about a week before they pass a massive dropping, about 5cm long and about 8mm wide plus urea blob. Once dry I've broken the faeces in half to find that the top half of the dropping is digested cricket matter, but almost the whole bottom half of the dropping is the fine sand. I can tell that it's not just sand sticking to the dropping as it's a well-shaped cylinder.
I have 6 knobtails total, and most have normal bowel movements, it's just two of them that seem to be having dramas. It's good that the two that are having trouble have so far been able to pass the sand, but it's not good for them to have so much in the first place and I'd hate to loose any to impaction.
I think I'll go back to the rougher stuff, perhaps it's just easier to spit out the larger granules for the geckos.
I was interested in other keepers experience with this as I know many people keep their collection on very fine sand.
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17-Oct-07, 10:09 AM
|  | Subscriber | Join Date: Oct-06 Location: north coast NSW Age/Gender: 24  | | | |
that's really interesting glider.
I have some of my knob tails on very fine real red desert sand and they seem to have normal sized poo. The others I keep on a mixture of washed beach sand and the red sand that comes in the 20kg bags (more like dirt) and they have normal poo too.
No sand in either
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17-Oct-07, 10:15 AM
|  | Subscriber | Join Date: May-07 Location: Brisbane Age/Gender: 23 | | | |
Perhaps you could try feeding them out of their enclosure, and see if that makes a noticeable difference..?
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17-Oct-07, 10:22 AM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Oct-06 Location: north coast NSW Age/Gender: 24 | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Miss B  Perhaps you could try feeding them out of their enclosure, and see if that makes a noticeable difference..? | many of my lizards will not eat if they aren't in their usual surrounds, they just prowl around looking for a spot to escape so that probably wouldn't work.
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17-Oct-07, 10:31 AM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Aug-06 Location: Brisvegas | | | |
Only one of my knobbies is comfortable eating from tweezers (and even then only rarely), and none of them would feed properly if they were in temporary tubs.
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17-Oct-07, 10:32 AM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: May-07 Location: Brisbane Age/Gender: 23 | | |
Fair enough. My beardies will eat anywhere  (haven't kept geckos sorry... didn't realise they were different).
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17-Oct-07, 10:41 AM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Aug-06 Location: Brisvegas | | |
Thats ok MissB, the gecko's are pretty private little guys  |
17-Oct-07, 11:04 AM
|  | Sdaji Subscriber | Join Date: Jun-04 Location: Victoria | | | |
I keep some of mine on very fine sand, and so far I haven't found any difference between it and the co**** stuff I use. I collected all of it from sand dunes in SA and NSW.
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17-Oct-07, 11:05 AM
| | Sdaji Subscriber | Join Date: Jun-04 Location: Victoria | | |
I can't say co****? (opposite of fine - I hope I can use that one, it's a four-lettered f-word!  ) Wow! This place is going backwards!
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17-Oct-07, 11:09 AM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Aug-06 Location: Brisvegas | | | |
Hmmmm... quite the predicament I'm in with it....
I didn't have this problem with the rougher sand, but then again if the lizards did accidentally ingest nearly as much rough sand as they have fine stuff I really don't think they'd be able to pass it.
It's just so strange that only two individuals (in two different tanks) are having dramas. I moved them all into the new enclosures with new sand a month or two ago, and have had two enormous droppings from each affected gecko. I am assuming that they may have normal droppings in between but can't be certain as they're communally housed. One is a Levis Levis and one is a Pilbarensis.
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17-Oct-07, 11:09 AM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Aug-06 Location: Brisvegas | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Sdaji I can't say co****? (opposite of fine - I hope I can use that one, it's a four-lettered f-word! ) Wow! This place is going backwards! | Yeah I know, thats why I keep calling it 'rough' sand even though co**** (opposite of fine) is a much better description. Maybe 'larger-grained'. | |
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