walnut shells for bedding?

[johnson00]

Is ground walnut shells bad for dragon bedding?
I can't stand newspaper, so what else?

 

[angie.h]

It's not good, easily eaten and can cause impaction.I love newspaper myself...I have a few cages with washed children's playsand.[ Only my 12+inch dragons] Some people are horrified of sand....when it's washed it's less dusty. I've never had impaction problems with my dragons on sand...then there's shelf liner like you get at home improvement stores.

 

[johnson00]

ok thanks, i think i will try sand, for some reason the newspaper does not stay at the bottom of my container well its always all over the place, and it smells horrible even though i clean it often, where the walnuts absorb the smell.

 

[Mistyck]

Please don't use the crushed walnut shells. It impacts your dragons, and tears up their insides.

If your dragon is longer than 12" then feel free to use children's playsand. I've used it before and liked it. Currently I use slate tile though.

 

[Matt2979]

I sure do wish that I had read this yesterday! I JUST switched over to crushed walnut from carpet. I'm still not going back to carpet (can never get it completely CLEAN!!) but I guess I'll get some sand. I used orange vita-sand (I THINK that's what it was called) before for my adult and it turned her orange.

 

[dragonluver83]

I sure do wish that I had read this yesterday! I JUST switched over to crushed walnut from carpet. I'm still not going back to carpet (can never get it completely CLEAN!!) but I guess I'll get some sand. I used orange vita-sand (I THINK that's what it was called) before for my adult and it turned her orange.

If your going to go with sand, go with Angie's idea. I can only see where the dragon eats the sand, only cause it taste good. almost like when there is a pile of rep cal calcium in the cage, maybe were you dumped some bugs out of a cup and it spilled out. Some babies will sit there eat the bugs then eat the pile of rep cal calcium.

 

[angie.h]

I know for a fact that Calcium type sand from the stores causes impaction. I was in a pet store about 10 years ago and the reptile manager asked if I could figure out why his leopard geckos were dying. I picked one up and you could see through the transparent little belly that the entire intestinal tract was clogged full of blue sand. So it is not harmless if ingested at all.

 

[jellyfishrhythm]

I've heard the same things about Calci-sand or anything that boasts a "healthy calcium content" that you can buy in a pet store - they're a no-no. I've also learned that the statements made by the manufacturers on the bag about being " veterinarian recommended" or being "healthy and easily digestible" aren't subject to any kind of legal ramifications for false advertising, and no review or check process is in place to review or validate said claims. Essentially, the company could write "cures cancer" or "tastes great with tilapia" all over the packaging, and it could still legally be sold. Scary stuff! Even feeling the calcium stuff between my fingers, it's really coarse, and the grains are nowhere near uniform in size or texture -- evil stuff, particularly the artificially dyed ones! I never ever used sand for my leos, and stuck with slate tiles - I use the Zoo-Med Repti-sand for my larger dragons and have never had a problem with it -- natural color, no alleged calcium supplement, marginally pricey. I know the play sand is far less expensive, but every time it comes to enclosure-cleaning time, it slips my mind! Washing it is a super intensive process too, but as anyone will tell you, it's necessary!


I've also never heard anything good about walnut shells - they're on clearance in every Petco for a reason! ;-)


Moral of my rant: that colored calcium stuff is the devil!

 

[johnson00]

Thanks, for all the info. I will try the sand.

 

[jellyfishrhythm]

Paper towels are good too - but few things can mask the unimaginable stench of beardie poop. Its foulness is unmatched! At least paper towels are easy to clean up quickly - my beardies' "presents" hardly have time to cook under the heat lamp before I snatch them up and make them disappear!

 

[Matt2979]

After reading more good info about this, I think I'm just going back to newspaper and forget about the sand altogether. I really like the looks of my tanks with the sand, and thought the dragons might actually be more comfortable with it. At least with the paper, I can easily clean the tank (itself) with chorahexidine and know that it's actually CLEAN.

That's the other thing I worried about with sand (or even walnut shells). As easy as it is to scoop the poop out, isn't that still leaving dirt and bacteria for my dragons to walk around in??

 

[jellyfishrhythm]

Can't go wrong with paper, really! - hmm, you make a good point about the bacteria. I use chlorahexidine solution also (I'm a microbiologist/molecular biologist by trade), and I "borrow" it from my lab and dilute it to a 0.1x solution. Theoretically though, e.coli and stuff like that generally require warm, moist areas to thrive - and the hot, dry nature of the sand isn't conducive to that. That's not to say that there isn't bacteria lurking about, of course there is, but conditions for growth to a " dangerous" level aren't really present in an optimal beardie environment.

My dragons like to dig in the sand, but that could just be situational. Newsprint/paper towels are definitely the easiest and least likely to be gobbled though! (I'm paranoid about impaction - and only feed greens in a high- walled dish and scurrying bugs in a separate feeding tank lined with, you guessed it, paper towels!)