calci-sand

[Snakeman]

so i know that sand as substrate for reptiles can cause impactions and with all this talk about how bad petco/petsmart is it got me thinking....what about calci/digestible sand? i know at petco we sell this stuff but im not sure if i should recommend it to customers so i dont kow if i should....

[Snakeman]

anyone?

[SatanicIntention]

I'd recommend buying some and doing some experiements. Once wet, that stuff turns to sludge and is in no way digestible. It has killed animals before and since people keep buying it, it will continue killing animals. Impaction is probably not a fun death, since they are slowly starving, and their intestines die from lack of blood flow.

If someone wants to use sand, with their ADULT animal, recommend children's play sand. It's finely sifted and shouldn't cause any problems. Sand by itself is really just disgusting because people usually just sift it with the scoop and don't think about all of the liquid that is seeping down to the floor of the cage. It's just like any other particulate substrate, it needs to be fully changed out every time. Spot cleaning doesn't work.

[Kristy]

Calci sand is bad stuff.

Working with leopard geckos for a while now I have seen first hand what that stuff can do.

Not only does it cause impaction it can also dye the leopard geckos belly and feet the color of the sand.

It is made for them to eat. It's not digestable though. Think about it this way, what happens when you pour water on pure calcium and let it sit? It hardens like a rock. Now imagine that in a leopard geckos stomach? Or other lizards.

Fine clean sifted play sand is safer, I would not use it though just because of the risk. There are safer methods.

In my opinion no I would not recommend it. If it means making sales for the store, recommend reptile carpet.

[bigballs]

i work at a pet store as well and i always recommend paper towel for babies and if you must use sand when they grow up then head down to home depot and grab a big bag of play sand.

edit: oh ya and calci-sand is not digestible.

[Snakeman]

ok now i know, thanks

[mlededee]

i wouldn't use any sort of sand in a leo enclosure. i tried the finely ground play sand for a short while. this was my experience: http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=45900.

[Kristy]

Thanks Emily for posting that link. I think you are the first person I have heard of using playsand and actually admitted there was a problem.

I see people on other forums talk about how much safer it is because they use it and don't have any problems. Maybe its because they aren't paying enough attention to their animals like you do.

I am changing my opinon of play sand now. There are so many safer methods out there. Personally now that I only have one Leopard gecko I have used tile and it works great.

[mlededee]

i had heard so many people say the play sand was safe i decided to go for it, but it was obvious fairly quickly that it was no good. with leos especially, there is just no way that they aren't going to ingest at least some of any loose substrate you put them on, so it's just not worth the risk.

[chris B]

I agree I would never use sand even with aduld bearded dragons, just my opinion. I use ceramic tiles *slate texture* for mine and he love's it. Like said above leo's do well on paper towel. Although sand is more pleasing to the eye, its just no worth the risk's.