What?! Repti-carpet shouldn't be used? Who told you that? IMO thats the BEST substrate to use for these guys. Leos do not do as well with a loose substrate as they could with something like carpet. The downside to newsprint is that it doesn't give them anything for them to get their claws into as they walk around. Repti-carpet is porous enough that it allows them to get their claws into it, but it doesn't use looped fibers that people talk about claws getting stuck into.