Sand or no sand?

[daniel1983]

you have much more experience with keeping them on sand, so according to you its safest

I never said anything was 'safest'... I simply said sand is not alway dangerous. EVERY substate has risks.

I have yet to have an issue with housing my leos on sand because i choose not to use sand, for me its easier and more sanitary to use a peice of tile.

Then your methods are for PERSONAL reasons. You kept leos on sand without issue, but you chose to house differently because something was easier for you. So it really has nothing to do with sand being functional substrate? I know keepers that use sand for 'ease of cleaning' because they can sift out feces and only do full substrate changes as needed. That does not make your methods wrong......just a different way of doing things.

I do not have evidence that housing any reptiles on papertowel, tile, exc is the best but i do know it takes away the risk of ingesting their substrate because there is no substrate to ingest.

Again this focus on what is 'best' or 'safest'. Can't substrates be equal?

I ask again to show me evidence that there is no risk with using tiles. I have given you an honest example of a problem known to cause issues while keeping tiles in enclosures with lizards. Animals get under them and get crushed.

ALL SUBSTRATES have certain risks with them. With knowledge, a keeper can limit that risk.

A manufactured sand with sharp edges has a higher chance of causing an impaction than a spherical midsized grain sand. A lizard kept hydrated has less of a chance of becoming impacted than a dehydrated animal.

A keeper can successfully house a lizard on sand if properly chosen. There are alot of sands out there however. SAND is not a bad substrate.....specific types of sand are bad substrates.

Saying sand is bad because a specific brand of manufactured sand has caused impactions...is like saying....Ball pythons are dangerous because some other pythons can grow to 15 feet in length.

Get the point I am trying to make?

Because I dont house on sand that makes me an inexperienced herp keeper?

No. Sticking to a 'safe' method, does not allow someone to expand upon their knowledge of how different substrates function. Therefore, the keeper lacks experience with substrates not previously declared 'safe' by others.

If that was the truth then every single breeder/hobbiest that houses all their reptiles on paper towels inexperienced, im sure there are dozens of those type of people who breed high numbers of animals, keep hundreds of resident reptiles does that make them inexperienced just because of their substrate choice?.

Breeders use what they use because breeding is the goal.....it deals more with objectives. Low maintenance, high productivity = profit.

i think it would be cute to see little foot prints in the sand but not at the risk of them ingesting it, but thats me what you do is totally up to you, your animal your choice just as i said previously in this thread.

I keep my lizards on soil because it is 'natural' compared to other stuff. It has nothing to do with appearance. I pick a soil that can be ingested without issue and I keep my animals hydrated. No problems with ingesting the substrate....I see them eat it all the time when going after insects. No problems.

Problems occur when people chose a bad type of sand or do not care for their animals properly. If the keeper makes the right choices there should be no problems. That is the issue. All sands are not health risks.