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The contraversial subject that is substrate for a beardy

G

gertrude

New member
Hi All,

I have had snakes for a while now and at the weekend I purchased my first beardy. I did my research before buying him but I cannot get to the bottom of substrate.

Everytime I decide on a particular substrate, I find a website telling me not to do it.

I was thinking about using a very tight, almost felt like carpet as I can pull it out, wash it and re-use it. There are websites out there that say it's ok and there are some that don't. The last thing I want to use is calcium sand especially as he is still quite young. When he gets older I was thinking of using play sand.

I just wondered if I could get some opinions on here as this site has never failed to help me out yet.

Thanks
 
You'll get answers from much more experienced folks on here, but I'll throw in my experience too. I wound up using Wheat Bran for my beardie. It looks a bit like sand, but is more digestible should they eat it. I always froze it thoroughly first to fight off grain moths. Mine tended to lick EVERYTHING around her so I was very reluctant to use sand.
 
I completely agree with you about this uber controversial subject. Nobody agrees! LOL.

I've got a beardie named King Kam. When we first got him, we put him on newspaper. When he became a juvenile, we started placing him on play sand. He's been fine ever since (have had him going on 5 years). He's healthy and he's one handsome dude! I'm pretty sure he'll be happy the rest of his life too (another 5 or so years?).

The only thing I hated about newspaper was that the crickets, etc, used to get under the paper and CHIRP ALL NIGHT! LOL. Now we feed him his veggies and mealworms in a bowl and things are kewl. :)

Good luck on your quest for the "perfect substrate" for your beardie. Personally, I don't think one exists! :p
 
We recently changed our beardie, Tank, over to slate tiles that we got at the home depot. They were about $5 for a 4 or 5 pack of tiles... pretty cheap. We spot clean as he poos (those wet wipes are great for it) and then every now and then we take the tiles out, wipe the bottom and hose the tiles. It LOOKS great, he's very healthy, can't ingest it, and as a bonus, it keeps his nails trimmed!
 
Agreeing with Lauren! I love the slate tiles for ease of cleaning and nail trimming! I do however have a small sand area for Tequila. He doesn't like it though. He's a digger and I got tired of listening to him scrape the tiles so I gave him a sandbox. He never digs in it! He only poos in it(which is fine because that makes cleaning poo even easier!). Oh and he loves to fling the sand around when throwing a hissy fit.
 
this is indeed really a controversial subject. I followed a BD forum for a while where everybody who came in and said their beardies were on sand were told to get them off it IMMEDIATELY as it would cause impaction and your beardie would surely die of it. Tile was the preferenced substrate.
Out here it seems most people use sand. I asked my vet who has lots of rep experience, and he said that beardies do sometimes lik the sand, but not in amounts that will cause them harm. But they *will* do that when they are not supplied with extra vitamins and minerals. For them in that case the only way to search for the much needed minerals.
He advised against play sand though, as the grains would be too sharp. But it's possible that the play sand on your side of the big pond consists of another kind of sand, as the play sand here apparantly is "rijnzand" (sand from river Rijn...best I can do in translation lol, anyway it's here in europe), so maybe those aren't comparable.
Another reason they were so against sand on that forum was that the liquids of the poop sink in and harbour bacteria on the bottom of your viv. I don't agree with that argument, as long as you spotclean regularly and take some of the surrounding sand with it. I change sand every half year to a year, and have never seen the horrible scenes on the bottom of the viv they discribed so vividly :D
 
Slate until adult, then a contained washed play sand area would be optional. They lick everything.
 
its very controversial. but the best thing i came acrossed is an experience breeder i lived near and got my female citrus tiger off of. he uses aspen for all of his animals and even his beardies. he told me this advice when i was asking these questions. "beardies have lived on sand, dirt, rocks, pebbles, and who knows what else their whole lives, do you think a beardie eating a bit of sand is going to hurt him? hell no, theyre tough animals and do not need to be treated like lil fufu dogs." so i then put my beardies on aspen since they were in my possession and have never turned back. it might seem stupid to some, but they like it. they can dig lil nests to sleep in, its easy to clean, readily available, and if you get it in shreds big enough they dont think about eating it. mine love and and i just had them on paper for a few weeks cause they ended up in mites somehow and they were pissed with me. my male took a chunk out of me, but now theyre back on aspen and all set and happy. so if your looking for something id say try aspen. its great.
 
I'm with Min and Lauren: Tile! Since whether or not beardies are really prone to impaction is such a controversial subject, I decided just not to deal with it and go on the safe side of things. I put my guy on paper towel then repticarpet (and back again) for the first 6 months I had him, and recently got around to picking up some ceramic tile (will probably switch to slate, though, since even the textured ceramic isn't quite textured enough). He seems to enjoy it, and cleaning up poo is easy-peasy, even when the little PITA decides to trample through it. =)
 
The idea of putting a beardie on aspen is as bad as putting corns on millet, it might be ok for some but why take the chance when safe substrate are easy and cheap? I also like tile but non stick shelf liner works great too. You can get a roll at malmart for around $8 or so and cut it to fit your viv perfect plus its machine washable.
 
I'm not sure about aspen as surely it could pose as a fire risk with the heat lamp?

I like the idea of slate, I can't think of anything that could go wrong there although i'm sure if I look hard enough I could find somebody that would advise me against it. Lol.

I have named my beardy Henry and I took this picture of him last night. He slept in this position all night, soooooo cute.

Henry2.jpg
:bowdown:
 
They like to be tucked in with a blankie at night!
 

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Screw it. Get an antigravity machine so the beardie floats in the air and doesn't have to worry about substrate period. Definitely the way to go.

D80

PS. I'd recommend sand.
 
Drizzt80 said:
Screw it. Get an antigravity machine so the beardie floats in the air and doesn't have to worry about substrate period. Definitely the way to go.


Ha Ha, That would be so cool. Watching him eat would be fun with the flying crickets. LOL :laugh::laugh::laugh:
Click to expand...
 
i dont advise against aspen and im not gonna argue that slate or shelf liner, paper towel or sand arent great either. aspen works great, easy to spot clean, no bad odor. i had slate for a while and hated it. mine like to be messy and they have water bowls which on bd.org i was advised against? wth. and they always spilt it and it got under the tile and was not a fun clean up. they dont spill it in aspen as its kind of got its own hole to sit in. they also hated slate, and hate paper. sand i had for a month and it smells like kitty litter every time i get home from work and go to clean up poop. i dont have any smell with aspen. so im not saying any of those are bad ideas, but i wouldnt advise against something unless you actually have tried it and had this oh so talked about beardie impaction. i actually have never really heard of many beardie impactions at all with all the people that i know that have beardies. and most of them keep on loose substrate also. so beats me to know that this all so common impaction isnt that common at all.
 
Patrick, while it may be true that impaction seems to be so uncommon, it must happen (even if rarely) or it wouldn't be talked about. That's why I refuse to use a particle substrate for beardies. They like tile/paper/carpet just fine, so my philosophy is: Why take the risk when the particle bedding doesn't really benefit their health, anyway? :shrugs:
 
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