Beardie Substrate

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bobi84

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Hey all my beardie is coming on 4 months now. When would it be wise to change to sand? Or would that just be unwise all together? The sand looks nice & all but I wouldnt want him getting sick. What do you all think? Ta
 
calcium based sands are a definate NO NO. but when he is fully grown and adult, you may choose sifted playsand silica free,

although impactions can happen with any particle substrate... even playsand.
 
Hi,

I can't see a problem changing to sand, after all, what do they live on in the wild? If you are stil unsure though, feed them from a little bowl or a lid.
 
i tried a few things...

i found sand, rocks, even carpeting just held too much odour and was far to difficult/exspensive to clean

i am on newspaper every second day now
 
A while back I changed my beardies to a desert sand (designed for reptiles) and this resulted in a severe eye infection. One of my beardies rubbed her face on the sand while she was shedding and copped an eyefull. She had previously had a mild eye infection but it had cleared up months before I changed them to sand, but the previous infection may have also been an underlying cause - as a precaution in case it was caused 100% by the sand I will never be using sand again. I only use astroturf as its easier to clean, and can't be ingested or end up in their eyes etc.
 
although sand is present in the Australian desert, pre desert dunes dont present much of a life, or suitability for them. hard packed clay and soil is what forms trees and insect live. desert doesnt always mean sand..
 
I tried the red 'reptile sand' that you can buy from the petshops for my 12mth olds and it discoloured the beardies... AND got really smelly.... even taking it all out and washing it on a tarp in the sun wouldn't remove the smell...

I would stick to newspaper :)
 
I use washed play sand, in a earthy brown colour, it suits my 6m old beardy fine! All i do when she wastes is use a empty cricket container to scoop it up and put it in the bin.

the odour goes fairly quickly depending on how often you clean out enclosure.

The artifical grass is great, except when you wash it , it does start smelling fairly awful!
 
I put it in for about 2 hrs then decided to take it back out, i got worried after all the bad things ive heard, don't wanna risk it. Thanks everyone!
 
i used sand from when i first got my beardies at 6 weeks. Looks great and had no problems with using it.
Although I was hand feeding my beardies for awhile. Sometimes they would cop some sand in their mouth when they jumped at crickets and occassionally pushed sand into their vegies but as long as you have a high edged feeding dish you should be right.
My beardies loved it, they liked to dig and curl themselves up in it when they sleep.
I now prefer to use marine carpet as it is heaps easier to clean.
 
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