bedding

[blazed]

hi i have 2 bd 1.1 and im looking to put half sand and half tiles. i was wondering what kind of sand can i use.??? i made my own tank and its 3x3x2 feet high....so im about to do a all glass top. pics will be up soon.

[Kuba]

First things first, do you have a seperate cage for the male, you cant keep both together, second sand isnt the best, if your dead keen on a loose substrate go with good ole' dirt from outside

[dembonez]

dont use any loose substrate it can kill your beardie! plz dont go with tile or repti carpet or somthing i prefer tile because the kind i have files his nails down aswell but plz no loose!!

[DavisonReptileCo]

In my beardie experience I have found that sand is more of a pain than it is worth. Definitely tile, papertowel or something similar is better. Beardies don't really live in sandy environments in the wild, they places where they spend their time are hardpack or rock, so there isn't a lot of sand. It DOES cause problems, no matter what people say. Also, if you dont change the sand out, it starts to stink even if you scoop it. Of course, buying new bags of sand all the time gets expensive anyway. My beardie has a base layer of papertowel with flat stones around his tank to file his nails down with. This seems to work great for me.

[Beardedragon]

First things first, do you have a seperate cage for the male, you cant keep both together, second sand isnt the best, if your dead keen on a loose substrate go with good ole' dirt from outside

I agree, except from the dirt outside part.

In my beardie experience I have found that sand is more of a pain than it is worth. Definitely tile, papertowel or something similar is better. Beardies don't really live in sandy environments in the wild, they places where they spend their time are hardpack or rock, so there isn't a lot of sand. It DOES cause problems, no matter what people say. Also, if you dont change the sand out, it starts to stink even if you scoop it. Of course, buying new bags of sand all the time gets expensive anyway. My beardie has a base layer of papertowel with flat stones around his tank to file his nails down with. This seems to work great for me.

+1

I wouldnt go with dirt outside, because of bugs and parasites, plus Dirt is sort of pointless for beardies because they do not burrow like lets say a savannah monitor. Like sand, dirt would be more of a hassel and a health hazzard. Not to mention feeding insects would be impossible.

[jfreels]

DO NOT use dirt from outside. Tile or paper towel. Superworms like to dig in the sand, so I wouldn't recommend that. My sister has two beardies on paper towel. She's thinking about doing the same thing, but when I talked to her last night, she had decided on all tile.

[BPelizabeth]

I actually used a laminate flooring for our 4x2x2enclosure and it has worked wonders. He does have a sandbox but currently since he is still very young it is a toy box.

[journeyoftheanimals]

Well if you set on using sand then I would suggest sifted and washed play sand from your local hardware store.

Personally I use sand in my enclosure and have had no problems.

Oh and I used a sand scoop that you would get from the pet store to sift my sand. You want what goes though the sifter to go into the enclosure. If you dead set on sand and want to know anything else then let me know.

[Crazy4Herps]

Yes, there is always going to be a risk of impaction when you use any loose substrate, but if you take precautions and your beardies are both full grown, they should be fine. Never feed on the sand, never use calcium sand (washed play sand is by far the best), and keep close track of bowel movements, and your beardies should be fine. I personally don't use sand because of the extra hassle and the expense, but it is usually fine if you know the risks.

I would recommend separating the two if they are in the same enclosure. Even in an enclosure as large as theirs, there is a good chance that there will be dominance issues and that one or the other (most likely the female) will end up getting hurt.

The cage sounds very cool, I'd love to see pics if you have any!