Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[claire_worth]

Hi, i posted a message on the forum Reptile Rooms which is used by Americans as well, I was asking about different vivs and quite alot of people on there have replied and said about not having sand as its bad for the geckos.
Weve used sand for the last 7 months and had no problems, but on there they seem to think that the pet shops are bad selling sand and we should change to slate or repti carpet, or something like that.
Is it just an american thing, or do you use sand as well?
Please reply
Thanx
Claire

[Melt0s]

It really depends. Everybody has there own oponions. I bleive that if theres no sand, theres no chance of impaction. I use newspaper myself. To Answer your Question, i wouldnt say its an american thing, Impaction isnt just in america

If you beleive your LG is fine on sand, then leave it i suppose. Its your choice. I had my LG on sand for about a month, and i just got paranoid about impaction, tell me about it - sad i know. But I would feel guilty if my LG got impaction, it would be my fault at the end of the day.

It's intirely up to you. I find sand is a pain in the arse to clean too. Im have Kitchen Lino for Beardie Viv, So simple to clean and disinfect.

Scott

[serpent]

I've had my leos on sand for a very long time (15 years + ) and now have 20+ species of gecko's, almost all on sand and have NEVER lost one due to sand inpactation. I put them straight from the incubator onto sand with no problems.
Sand impactation is nearly almost always due to incorrect husbandry ie. no calcium dish, lack of vitamins. This causes the gecko to eat the sand in search of the correct minerals.
I had a friend inspect my gecko's yesterday and he raised this point about sand and impactation, so we had an imprompt inspection of gecko poo with a hand microscope.
There was almost no sand in poo of the smaller species like stenodactylus and homonota, there was a small amount in species like leo's and C. angilifer and a bit more in the teratoscincus species.
If you use a fine sand like playsand and avoid big grain sand like calci-sand and have a lid/container with calcium in the tank at all times then impactation should not happen.
I have noticed over the last year or so since putting a calcium dish in every tank that there has been less sand in the geckos poo, even the 4 Teratoscincus species that I have, have noticeable less sand in there poo because before they had solid sand poops where they was missing something in their diet.


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People laugh at me because I am different
I laugh at them because they are all the same.

[claire_worth]

what calcium can you use in a dish?
weve got Nutrobal which we put on geckos hoppers?
Thanx for your feedback
Claire

[Mememe]

You should dust with calcium every two feeds ish and nutrabol once a week.
The calcium is usually called 'calypso' and it is powdered calcium carbonate.

Lack of calcium is detrimental, so some geckos feel the need to take in sand to boost there calcium levels.
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No man is an Island. Except the Isle of Man.

[spookje/ghost]

we had the same discusion on an american site also.
they are so convinced about them being right, and they keep telling everyone how bad it is.
but i said that almost everybody in europe, tries to make a realistic viv, wich means using sand.
if they want to use carpet, that is up to them.
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www.bcreptiles.com
120 groups leopardgeckos,
beardeddragons,
teratoscincus keyserlingii 3.4
teratoscincus scincus 1.2
teratoscincus prezwalski 2.1
teratoscincus roborowski 2.2.2,
4.4 geckonia chazalia
paroedura picta 4.10

[spookje/ghost]

beatuful vivs by the way serpent, looks great
wich species do you breed?
_________________
www.bcreptiles.com
120 groups leopardgeckos,
beardeddragons,
teratoscincus keyserlingii 3.4
teratoscincus scincus 1.2
teratoscincus prezwalski 2.1
teratoscincus roborowski 2.2.2,
4.4 geckonia chazalia
paroedura picta 4.10

[ssthisto]