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Calci-Sand, please respond!

K

Kakadu

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I have this person on another forum that is INSISTANT that many "Good breeders" have recommended calci-sand. He insists that because calcium carbonate is digestable, calcisand is digestable. He refuses to listen to arguments taht the calci-sand is roughly refined and does not come from the same sources or go through the same prossing as digestable sands. He insists it is safer. Of course he keeps asking for studies, be we all know that there is just no funding for studies like this to be done. And they certainly are not available in electronic form. THe only place I can find things like this is at the vet school library and it is mostly papers written by students in the vet program.

So, please, especially if you are a "good breeder" post how you feel about calci-sand. Even if you are not a breeder, please post what you have heard and any additional arguments against it.

Thanks for your time.

Kakadu
Jen
Kakadu Dragons
 
I work at a little mom & pop reptile pet store. This guy brought in a dead leopard gecko and wanted to know if we could figure out why it died. He said the gecko slowed down in the amt of crix it ate about two weeks ago but he wasn't really that concerend because it was so fat. This morning it was dead. It was an adult male with a fat tail and appeared otherwise very healthy, except it was dead. It did have a hard mass in the belly so we cut it open and guess what, impacted with sand. I asked the guy what substrate he used and he said calci-sand. I wish I would have taken a picture. The impaction was about 2" long and very hard.
 
The only safe sand that I recomend to all my customers that just don't want to go the paper toewel method is play sand from Home depot. Calci sand and all the other calcium based sands will and do cause impaction. I have had many reptiles, leos and bearded dragons brought to me by customers that just had to have the colored sand or by other people that simply called me for advice and then brought there reptile for me to look at, all were impacted by this sand and others made just like it. I am NOT a vet but I will take a look at reptiles brought to me for I have seen way too many impaction cases along with other illnesses with reptiles that come into a rescue that I help out with from time to time to be able to give them some sort of idea of what may be causing there problem and then recomend them to our reptile vet if need be. I stay far away from this type of sand and I can only recomend for the reptiles sake that my customers stay away from it as well. Everyone has there own opinion on this product of course but this has been my findings on this type of sand.
Shanell- The Reptile House
 
would of added this in my last post, but I couldnt edit...


The impaction in that leo was probly from play sand, maybe the owner was just confused about what exactly calci sand is. calci sand is made to be eatin by reptiles who would natural do so. ie leopard geckos. when a gecko eats so much sand that it becomes impacted it is becuse they are trying to get the vitamins and minerals that its not getting in its diet. most leo breeders keep a cap of cal. supplement in the cage with the leo 24/7. If calci-sand caused impaction they would not make statments like that in there advertisement.
 
Sure they would, they want to sell there product! :rotflmao:

There has been so many cases proven that this sand causes impaction. If anyone uses it and it has not caused any problems for them then great but simply from all my experiences it is just not a good sand for reptiles. Just for reference all my reptiles are kept on paper towels, with the exception of my adult breeder dragons, they are on play sand and they are the only ones of mine that are kept on it and I absolutly love the quality of the sand and it has never caused any of my adult dragons to become impacted.

I only wish the best for those of you who choose to use the other sands. Shanell
 
I'm sure the person who owned that dead gecko knew the difference in calci-sand and play sand. Gosh it says what it is on the package. Not the mention the fact that he made some kind of statement as to it being very pricy which play sand is not.
 
The pet industry is totally unregulated. I challange anyone to find a case where the contents, ingrediants, or claims of a reptile product have ever been questioned. It simply does not happen. The claims are absolutly false. You can put calci-sand in water and it will not dissolve at all, you can put it in coke and it will not dissolve at all.. In fact it clumps together and become sa cement ball. Hehe, do you really believe the claims that every product makes! Thats crazy! But hey I have some miracle pills for you that will cure any disease and some snake oil that will improve your life! It says so ont he package!

I read an experiment earlier today where a guy actually put calci-sand in HCL and VERY LITTLE OF IT DISSOLVED! HCL! Imagine what the weak acids of the bearded draogn's stomach manage.

There is no argument for it actually being digestable. I mean, just try a few quick experiments at home.
 
In a technical sense calcium carbonate is digestable... the question is really one of ingestion rate versus digestion rate. The speed at which it's digested is not equal to the speed at which it is potentially ingested and calcisand can't be wet down to compact (and thus reduce the amount likely to be ingested) the way natural sands can. Calcisand will dissolve if you've got the time to wait for it, herps just have pretty weak digestive acids, relying more on enzyme action.

It's a bad product. T-Rex isn't exactly a bad company for herp products when compared to others with the ability to nationally (internationally) market their product and meet sales demands but there are a few items they produce which are just kind of... stupid and should never be used. Those lizard leashes that are "anole sized"... the scented water that's six bucks a bottle to help with sheds... and calci-sand. Compare it to the way zoo-med sold those dehydrated fruit flies as "anole food"

The product claims made for stuff like this aren't *exactly* lies but they're also not honestly represented and phrased to give a potential buyer a genuine understanding of the product. Couple this with the shape and size of calcisand grains and... natural sand is better. Much, much better.
 
nice read. but calci-sand from T-rex wasnt used in the study. maybe someone should copy the study useing the calci-sand brand.
 
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