Substrates for leos; your opinion
 

I saw on Milwaukee Reptiles' site, links to a variety of caresheets for leos and have been studying them. One topic on which there seems to be considerable debate is substrate. I am currently using paper towels for the leos but am considering a change; what substrate do y'all actually use for your leos?

substrate
 

i use black and white news paper. i goto the local deli when they bundle up the old news papers for trash pick up so they are free. i strongly reccomend paper as a substrate because it is readily available, very easy to clean, 100% safe no chance of impaction. some may say other substrates are ok but i say why take the chance. just my 2 cents, kirk

well I am not very experienced in leos as of yet :bandhead0 but after talking to a known person on this forum I like their idea for a floor(substrate).

the reason I say floor instead of substrate is because it is exaclty that, ceramic tiles. They serve a couple of small purposes
1. easy to clean, and if you buy a box of them then you can easily swap them out at cleaning time.
2. help retain heat in the sense of electric bills, :) , I figure the more heat that is retained the less the heaters have to run.
3. they can be cut to fit any size cages without to much trouble.
4. never have to buy and replace the substrate (except in the case where its free) it is the cheaper way to go.
5. no chance of them eating it, and if they did there might be some funny looking geckos with big flat square bellies. :raspberry

Well like i said I am not that experienced in geckos yet, but the person that I spoke with is the person I will be purchasing a couple of leos from in the near future. Have to make the time for the trip to go get them. I hate shipping and dont trust even the best of them to do it right. Plus in this case they are only a few hours away.

I purchased ceramic tiles for a larger enclosure but they do not fit in the rack tubs, they are very nice both in terms of looks and ease of cleaning.
I may buy or make larger tubs but for now the ceramic does not fit what I have.

You can cut the ceramic tiles with a wet-wheel saw, but I personally wouldn't use them. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with them, it's just that they're quite heavy for a rack, and when positioned over heat-tape, they disperse the heat over a much wider area. That's okay, but it makes it more difficult to keep a thermal gradient in smaller enclosures.

I use paper towels in the shoebox tubs (VIVA select-a-size fits perfectly) and newspaper in the larger tubs. Occasionally I have kept them on coco fiber, but usually that's just for their humid hides.

That's just what I do, but I'm sure there are a variety of other ways that would work just fine depending upon your purposes and types of enclosures.

(despite the controversy, I just have to add that I do NOT recommend calcium carbonate substrates)

Thanks,
Paul

I personally keep mine on newspaper and hatchlings on paper towel. I grab those free mini newspapers (In WI we have MKE and Onions) everytime i go to the store, that way we have newspaper for us! :)

Paper towels, newspaper, or tile. I believe places like Home Depot and Lowe's will even cut tiles to your measurements.

I will check those out next time I go to the store. The problem with towels is that you can't spot clean but even changing every tub every day would be easier if the towels fit in there a little better.

paper towel

I don't use anything in my bins at all. I wipe out the poo each AM with a paper towel then wipe over that spot with a papertowel that has a spray of virosan on it. Then each week I run each tub through the dishwasher.

My tank I have ceramic tile in though.