To sand or not to sand

[Scott&Nikki]

Tile is VERY close to a natural substrate. Leopard geckos live on mountains/hill made of tightly packed clay. If you have ever felt natural tightly packed clay, it is extremely close to tile. They DO NOT live in the desert covered in sand. When you say "when I think of lizards, I think of sand", you are thinking of a portion of lizards. I don't even think half of the worlds lizards live in sand. As some people have mentioned, leos in the wild specifically move out of areas where there is sand. How is it natural??

 

[PaulSage]

I had a uromastyx die from sand impaction. That's just one reason why I don't use sand for my geckos. Also, until someone can tell me how to thoroughly disinfect sand, I think I'll stick with my paper substrates.

 

[moosassah]

OK, I'm taking the sand out of the cage. I'm sorry!!!! Calcium in a dish, sand in the kids' sandbox. Got it. Paper towels do sound easier.

 

[Val]

It's a lot more common then you would think. I see it at least twice a month on another forum I frequent, and every single one of them was using the calcium sand recommended by the pet stores. "Lizard" is such a generic term, that you can't just group them into one big care sheet and can be found pretty much anywhere. I personally think sand looks disgusting in tanks and prefer not to add another thing to worry about to my list.

 

[GECKOMAN]

I say that paper towels make the best substrate.
I have not tried slate tiles but they sound good and I am going to try them soon.
I have used sand on all of my adult geckos and they are fine.
Use the finest grain of sand that you can find and they will be fine.
Do not use sand on a small, young,or unhealthy gecko ONLY on healthy adults.
I would not use calci-sand if I was you it incourges the leopard gecko to
eat it and it clumps, and is hard to digest.
Overall though unless you are trying to make your tank look good
I would use paper towels because they are easy to clean.

 

[Stitch]

paper towel, slate, tile,etc.... are not natural either and i personally dont like the looks of anything other than sand because when i see a lizard i think sand. As for calc sand clumping it doesnt clump enough to cause impaction.........the fact of the matter is it is all up to the owner what he wants to do..

You are correct that paper towel is not a natural substrate for leos, but it is by far the safest. As mentioned leos live in rocky terrain so therefore slate tiles being rock would fit into the natural subtrate category.

Unfortunately what looks good for a substrate doesn't always mean it is good for them. However, as you mentioned it is up to the owner to decide what to use.

Any kind of loose substrate carries the risk of impaction. I think that if you were to ask any decent herp vet they will tell you that sand is not a good choice. My vet just told me the other day he had a gecko come in that was impacted from calcium sand, unfortunately it died because the owner waited too long to bring it in.

Here is a link that may help some realize that caclium based sand does not digest like it states it does. The chart on the following link doesn't show up unless you high light it with your mouse.
http://www.pythons.com/calcium.html

 

[LeopardLunatic]

if you notice though he said that the granules are 2x bigger than play box sand and that may be true for that fre flow stuff but i know for a fact that there are finer grain calc sand available such as reptilite. this is what it looks like in my vivs.

and this is lizard litter which also i have never had problems with (although i only use it for my adults.)

another thing i would like to point out is that the fre flow stuff is a cow additive not specifically designed for herps. as for the tests he did the sand should be passed through and most of the time is unless the lizard ingests WAY to much. The lizard litter that i use is slightly bigger grain but the amount a lizard would have to ingest to cause impaction is impossible to do when they have their food in their mouths and worms of any kind should be fed in a dish anyways. Again i would also say i would not reccomend sand for anything under 5 inches in length.

also the pictures are a little blurry sorry

 

[Stitch]

These particles are about 2X larger than normal sand, which has also been known to cause impactions under certain conditions

The samples were then set in a 70°F constant temperature room for 4 days

Calcium sand acts as an antacid which neutralizes stomach acids, adversely effecting digestion

...He had died due to impaction on his substrate. That was the last time I used orchid bark...

My point is there is no denying that loose substrates can lead to impaction. It is best to reccomend to new herpers what will be the safest way to care for their animals.

 

[Scott&Nikki]

LeopardLunatic, our point is, you just said

the sand should be passed through and most of the time is unless the lizard ingests WAY to much

How is it worth making sure that doesn't happen? I think you are just being defensive because you have used it with no problems. If you look at the facts, even what YOU say, I feel it isn't worth the risk and the worry. I don't want to sit here thinking "I hope my leo doesn't eat too much of that sand". I would much rather think "I don't need to worry about impaction because my leo is on tile, paper towel, newspaper etc."

 

[ReptileMan27]

paper towel, slate, tile,etc.... are not natural either and i personally dont like the looks of anything other than sand because when i see a lizard i think sand. As for calc sand clumping it doesnt clump enough to cause impaction. Lets put it this way your lizards have just as much of a chance to die from choking on their food or something falling on them heck when you breed them your taking a risk of death right there the fact of the matter is it is all up to the owner what he wants to do. Ive gotten into this argument on various forums and in the end nothing is resolved and everyone ends up resenting me because of my opinions but this is all a rumor spread around because a gecko died from impaction that doe not necisarrily mean calc sand and it doesnt mean it happens very often the chance is probably 1 in a million its like getting killed by wes nile it doesnt happen to many people i know and yet i still see people over reacting and spraying cans upon cans of bug spray on them selves and i dont because i dont have a low immune system im not old and im not a baby yet people still think it can kill anyone. So i guess what im tring to say is the chance is very very very slim and i wouldnt worry about it why put your so called "LOVED" pet in something that looks like something you threw together. I spent the better part of 2 years putting this together the way i like it and my leos seem to enjoy it an awful lot.

No one said paper towels or newspaper were natural:main_thumbsup:. But they are safe unlike sand:main_thumbsup: