Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[Devon_Paul]

Hi guys, I am looking for a little advice. I currently use Calci-sand as a substrate for my 3 Beardies and had no health concerns whatsoever to date. However, and this may seem a little vein, but it is always sooo dusty. My dragons are usually covered in a fine powder which covers up their lovely colours and markings. Whenever I take them out, I am also then covered in dust from their bodies.
So the question is, what natural looking substrate can I use, that is proven not to have any related health issues but also provide the advantage of not being too dusty, whilst still being easy to clean?
Thanks.

[negri]

lino or padded tiles is easy enough to clean , or if you want it looking a bit more natural play sand or slate/tiles
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Fire Belly Toads 5:6:0
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And a Fish Called George...

[tigerbaby2k]

Ive used Hemp (Ambiose) with great success. Keeps the viv clean and dry, is digestible, although they rarely pick any up. Looks good too. Otherwise play sand (allow to dry out) is fine. The calci sand can actually encourage them to eat it... Some people use wood chips. At the end of the day, people will vary in what they use and as long as it doesnt retain moisure (avoid bark) and is easy and cheap to clean/replace and is non harmful to them then its personal preference. I always keep babies on plain paper/old newspaper until 5-6 months old.
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Sophxx

Counting down the weeks til I get my Cham! My beardie is 10 1/2 years old

1.0 Bearded Dragon
1.0 Lhasa apso
1.1 Lionheads
0.1 Syrian Hamster

[dantro]

Ive used and tried a few different substrates, but i must admit Playsand is the best so far, looks good, its there for digging if they want. I wouldnt use anything else now ... But at the end of the day its down to personal choice.
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Cheers
Dan
1.1.0 Ackies (10 eggs cooking) 4.9.6 Stenodactylus S. (22 eggs cooking)

[Devon_Paul]

Hi, many thanks for all of your replies. It seems like play-sand is a popular choice and is very similar to calci-sand in look etc. Is this not as dusty either?

[dantro]

Its not dusty at all, just make sure u dry it before u put it in and make sure its non silica, i get mine from mothercare, but Argos do it too ...
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Cheers
Dan
1.1.0 Ackies (10 eggs cooking) 4.9.6 Stenodactylus S. (22 eggs cooking)

[Jaffa]

I swapped from the calci sand earlier this year to the repitle sand stuff, it looks far better without the dust

[minno]

i use that black exo terra desert sand, and have no problems with it at all, cept for a deep substrate prepare 2buy a few bags lol,
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2.1.0 Crested Geckos
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[Lynne]

tiles or lino like negri says. easy to keep clean too. and is good for the claws.
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[Dracowoman2]

I've got siliconed kitchen floor tiles in my vivs, and I usually use porridge oats as substrate on top of that. They work like cat litter, keep the smell to almost zero after they have done what they do best, are cheap as chips as 2 bags of the really cheap Tescos or Asdas own brand do a 4 foot viv nicely and there is no risk of impaction.

Just my personal preference as I won't have sand anywhere near my beardies or geckos just to be on the safe side. In the wild what they actually live on is more like compacted granite anyway, they are not actually a desert species per say
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