• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Substrate

I'd use sifted playground sand. 50lb bags are $2-3 at Home Depot. Sometimes you can find "premium" playground sand that doesn't have any pea gravel in it, but you'd want to sift it through a window screen to remove any of the larger particles.
Hope that helps.
 
they won't get impacted is what i meant. i don't want to have to bring them to the vet. do you use it with out any problems?
 
For this I feed my bearded outside his cage in a tub without any substrate, this way he does not eat in his cage and I have to worry about any substrate being ingested.
 
Beardie_Guy said:
they won't get impacted is what i meant. i don't want to have to bring them to the vet. do you use it with out any problems?
Click to expand...
Nope, no problems. Dragons can pass small grains of sand if they inadvertently ingest it. That's why it should be sifted to remove any larger grains, pebbles, etc. My dragons are all fed inside their cages, but I put the mealworms and veggies in a food dish so that sand doesn't get stuck to them. There is a wide variety of sand-substrates available commercially for reptiles. Unfortunately, many of them are made mostly from calcium-carbonate which is *claimed* to be digestible. Studies have shown otherwise. The calcium sands can wreak havoc with the pH in an animal's digestive tract, and I personally wouldn't recommed it.

If you're still concerned about impaction, you can do what Michael mentioned about feeding them outside of their cages. Like I said, I've never had impaction problems from using sifted playground sand, but my brother did lose his uromastyx a few years ago due to an impaction of calci-sand. --That was before I knew how "un-safe" the stuff really is.
 
Beardie_Guy said:
ok. i just wanted it to look like the outback of australia.
Click to expand...
In that case, you might want to look for a pre-packaged reptile sand made by Zoo-Med called Repti-Sand that comes in a reddish color very similar to the clay color of the outback. That's the closest thing I can think of that I would still consider "safe".
 
yeah that stuff doesn't seem to be calci-sand. they make something else for that. it is also extremely fine quartz. oh, what temperature should be maintained at night and by what means should i do it?
 
Don't worry about heating them at night unless the room temp drops below 65. I would suggest not feeding them for an hour and a half before the daytime heat light is turned off, that way they can get a good start on digestion before the heat is gone. Mine just sit at room temp (70-75) overnight.
 
well, my basement is usually 70, but drops even colder sometimes. should i have a heat mat under the substrate just incase it get's cold?
 
I agree with Dave, quick question through; what are the temps like in the basement in the winter and will you be able to keep the temp up enough for them to be ok?
 
well, it isn't too cold like compared to upstairs which is about 78 degrees most of the time the basemment is like 73. sometimes though we get small floods on the other side of the basement, and it makes it cool, so that would warm him up in an emergency.
 
If the temps in the basement stay above 65 there is no need for under tank heat. Just make sure that they have good basking lamps during the day so they can heat up and thermoregulate correctally.
 
Back
Top