Your Opinions on Loose Substrate for Bearded Dragons

[@arnicamoana7861]

I think it’s silly to deprive climbing and digging from a semi-arboreal species that digs deep burrows in the wild. Bearded dragons in the wild live on a soil that is composed in large part of sand. Not to say pure sand is ideal, even for beardies, but it’s a large part of their natural environment and ideal to use in mixes.

[@grimdesire]

people think its kinder to put their bearded dragons on bacteria harboring carpet and give them a single rock to climb on instead of imitating their natural environment, its wack. I fully agree with you

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@Avocetexotics]

My rescue dragon had clogged pores before I got him and he was kept on repti carpet for 6 years so loose substrate is not what causes clogged pores.

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@n8nkqrp595]

You make very sensitive, fair, honest and interesting vids Jessica.. thank you :)

[@ohsocalypso]

Mine is similar to yours where I have mainly tile in the front and desert sand in the back and side, I hand feed her, feed her on the tile or sometimes outside of her enclosure. She poops on the tile so it’s easy to clean but rarely does in her enclosure (she loves pooping in the bath). I think it all depends on the owner and if they are willing to put in the extra work for the higher maintenance.

[@lisarastogi5348]

As long as you monitor your lizard I think sand and loose substrate is ok. Lots of people have bio active enclosures with top soil and play sand mixture. Some people use entirely sand and never had issues.

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@rhythmdude]

my bearded dragon just choked on sand and died yesterday at 3 days old, and i was researching. i personally dont want sand near my beardies ever again.

[@Avocetexotics]

I use top soil, play sand, and a tiny bit of eco earth for my beardy. I definitely do not agree with calcium sand or just sand only. I think as long as you provide some other textures as well it is great for them! My dragons tank has tiles to eat on and a larger tile to sit on or bask if he goes to the warmer side. He is 6 years old and does lick some stuff but he doesn't tend to lick the ground. He has all of the right lights and Temps so I personally chose to give him that. His old owners kept him on repti carpet and he was missing part of a toe from I assume getting it stuck in the carpet. He love digging and seems to really enjoy the loose substrate so I like giving it to him.

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@Avocetexotics]

@@dragonsmarttt i would love to but I don't have face book.....

[@LizzieAnneNeogra]

I love the idea of using tile and loose substrate together like you have in your beardie's enclosures. I think when my leos get a bit older I'll try that with them. I think loose substrate is more natural and gives them the opportunity to do more natural behaviors like digging and burrowing. I will definitely try it with my bearded dragon as well (when I finally get one). Thanks for an informative video!😊

[@starbyray7828]

Hey Lizzie, speaking from personal experience and after much research, if it is done with care substrate works fine and gives the most enrichment. My two adult Leos both have a soil type substrate specifically created for arid species by Arcadia ( I never use sand!!!. I am always horrified to see them being kept on pure sand in my local pet stores). They have had this Arcadia mix in their vivariums for 2 years now (periodically changed for a fresh supply). My female will move the substrate around her vivarium vigorously, (usually piles it up in her hot hide) in the build up to laying. She has a thin layer on the viv floor and a deep layer in her cave (cool end) that is also her lay box. My male Leo has half his viv with substrate (cool end) and half without (hot end). He will periodically move some of his substrate from one end to the other. I tidy it all back into the cool end He will redistribute it. Both my Adult Leos are fed under supervision by me at meal times with tongs. They usually sit on top of their hides to eat or outside the glass doors on their doorstep. I have 7 baby Leos ranging from 4 months old to 1 month old (at time of posting) these all have kitchen liner and/or paper towel as substrate. Once they are more mature (1 year old) they will be changed to 50/50 like their parents . They also are tong fed by me to make sure they all get the right amount of food. :0)

[@LizzieAnneNeogra]

@@starbyray7828 I would love to give them substrate, I think they will both do well with it. The two leo's I have are about 4 months old right now so once they get around a year old I'll definitely try out substrate in their enclosures! I'll probably end up doing exactly what you said with half with substrate and half without on the hot end. I can't wait to try it out with them☺️

[@starbyray7828]

@@LizzieAnneNeogra I wish you and your babies all the best. My eldest baby Leo is 4 months old today her name is Jessica in honour of Jessica herself :0)

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@LizzieAnneNeogra]

@@dragonsmarttt I joined a week ago I think lol but thank you for the invite!!

[@Di-ni3ik]

I use play sand and dessert substrate. Mix then using a flat stone , bang on the substrate to compack it hard....just like in Australian outback. Every morning and afternoon i compact it. It is great, my beardie has stoney hardish surface to walk on but soft enough if he digs deep to play. Try it!.

[@BrittTadams22]

I use Tile and substrate for my bearded dragon abs leopard gecko! They both LOVE the substrate. They perfer it over the Tile! The only reason I have tile is for feeding abs easier clean up.

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@Abby-um5rd]

I disagree with just using stuff like straight sand, calci sand, pellets, and crushed walnut shells. I would always go based on the case, for some it will work and for some it won’t. And I would not give babies substrate, harder to monitor the baby if it’s on loose. I think in their natural habitat there in Australia is substrate partially, but they would always be able to get off it where as in captivity it’s not always as easy since they are contained in limited space. Personally, I use tile, lino, and paper towel. Works well. My lil guy wouldn’t do well on loose, so I don’t give it to him. Tile I think more mimics a rocky surface rather than a loose surface. I always recommend to people I meet to go with a dig box and tile first, see if the lizard will actually utilize it, and if they use it and seem to benefit than go for it. Linoleum is similar to liner. I have also seen loose get into eyes, ears, vents, etc while on my beardie group. So there definitely is downsides to both. I have been around the beardie group for quite a long time so I have seen a fair bit of both sides. Typically though for new owners going into their first dragon, tile is the way to go. It easy to care for and if they have mites or parasites it’s not difficult to clean and sanitize. I have seen people do substrate pretty well and have also seen people doing really badly with substrate. Once I saw a guy have to tear down a really nicely done bioactive because he had a baby in it and the baby ended up having to get treated for a health concern and it was very young. Quarantine first always! Loose Substrate is never something I would jump into doing, it takes consideration into whether the individual animal is going to benefit from it or if it’s going to be more risk than benefit. For a lot of people, a solid will be a great choice for the full enclosure, others can get away with a mix of solid and loose or even a full loose. Depends on the person and the dragon. The new enclosures look lovely Jessica! Really nice job!

[@Abby-um5rd]

@Daniel in the wild their lifespan is much less than it is in captivity. Additionally, in the wild they are not confined to a box. In captivity, they are confined to a box and unable to get off the substrate when housed solely on stuff like pure loose sand. If sand couldn’t cause impaction, we wouldn’t have examples and photos of it online. (They wouldn’t live on straight playsand in the wild anyways, the soils is composed of a lot more stuff than sand, so the point of plain playsand being more natural isn’t really great) There’s solid evidence substrate can get impacted in this species of animal if you are not careful about what you are using. Calci sand and walnut shells can actually be much more harmful than playsand because they have properties that can further encourage the animal to eat it or in the case of walnut shells, they are made of tiny sharp triangles.

[@Abby-um5rd]

@Daniel there are images on google of animals having surgery with guts filled of sand. No one’s care is perfect, personally, I think it’s not worth the risk of one screw up costing my dragons life for the sake of having an inch or two of straight sand in the bottom of the enclosure if what you say is correct. So I stand by my opinion that playsand and just straight sand in general is not the best choice for beardies. As a side note, not everyone is Australia uses sand for them lol. I have met several that also use tile on the beardie groups and live in Australia. Most of the enclosures I have seen with just plain sand have very little else. It’s very rare we have people with straight sand coming into the groups with otherwise perfect care from what I have seen. It’s mostly very barren enclosures with a couple cactuses, maybe a hide or two, not generally a hammock even. More often than not those that have followed advice online(from sites like reptiles magazine, nothing against them but the info is outdated on the site) and come into the groups with sand have 40 gallon or 55 gallon tanks which are too small for an adult by standards today

[@Abby-um5rd]

@Daniel uhh, I’m USA. We have plenty of good information out there. Not all of our stuff is “bad information”. That’s kinda rude for you to say that. Everywhere has good and bad information, unfortunately our top search results are not good. People from all over the globe join the group and it is not bad information. I’m not going to fight you further because I’m quite tired, but good day sir

[@Abby-um5rd]

@Daniel we typically use 100-110 for babies and 100-105 for adults basking, from the studies I have read this is average for them in the wild. Anything else will offset the gradient too much normally. We also use roughly 70 gallon minimums in the updated groups.

[@lane2699]

I think substrate is great ! Unless it's a situation where you know the animal will struggle on it, I think it's worth a shot at least. I worry about clogged pores with certain species, but I think if they're soaked as they should be and if you check up on them every now and then there shouldn't be any issues if that makes sense ? I think all problems with substrate can be avoided if you have the time (feeding them outside of their enclosures for instance)

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@saramartin2204]

I'm going to be switching my 2 bearded dragons to substrate 1 female 1 male not cohabbing. Is the top soil people use just organic top soil from a hardware store?

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

Yep! To sanitize you can freeze it for 3 weeks or bake it in the oven through til it’s dry.

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

I also recommend sifting it bc sometimes you’ll find weird bits of paper, nails, plastic.

[@saramartin2204]

Thank you so much!!! I was also wondering about the wetness of the top soil. And would have never thought to sift it!!😁👍

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

Depending on where it’s kept in your store, you may buy it pretty wet and you’ll have to let it sit out and dry in the open air.

[@ItzCornucopia]

When I got my three year old beardie, she came with coconut shavings as her only substrate. Over time I started to notice she was having compaction issues and kept ingesting the substrate, and so I changed her substrate out and gave her a repti-carpet and her compactions issues went away within a month. She does so much better, and I am planning to make her a dig box so she still has a place to dig around and do what is natural for her. I am not saying I only support rept-carpet, but I don't think coconut shavings are good at all for a beardie! especially as an only substrate... It gives off a strong smell when moved around and is harmful when they ingest it. I've never tried giving her a mix of substrates like soil and sand for her to dig around in, so I can't really say an opinion on that, but I might try in out for her dig box

[@itsTigereye]

Hello, have you ended up giving your beardie a dig box? Mine continuously would lick at the reptichips I gave her and suffered a small impaction so I’m looking into a dig box as well. Wondering what substrate to use in it.

[@ItzCornucopia]

@@itsTigereye I did, she doesn't use it very often tho so it's not always in her enclosure so she has more room to climb on her stuff. I used a mix of reptile sand I got from the pet store, and reptile soil that I got from the pet store. I usually put her dig box in her enclosure if she starts acting like she wants to dig around. I'm not an expert on what to use for a dig box, so I just went with a mix of natural substances. I'd definitely not recommend coconut shavings tho! They were harmful to my beardie!

[@itsTigereye]

@@ItzCornucopia Awesome, thank you!! Same with chips - no good!

[@ItzCornucopia]

@@itsTigereye yw! ^^

[@bigbonedthankyou7849]

Hi Jessica i know this is off topic but how do you create day and night for your leopard geckos im new to all this and i've herad many of the different ways people regutlate day and night as far as timing as well as the different types of bulbs or equipment used so i just wanted see what your recomdendation are. Thank you.

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

My pet room gets a LOT of sunlight and so the enclosures are actually quite lit up during the day but if you don’t have natural sunlight to use, you can get a light for atop the gecko’s enclosure. It doesn’t have to put off heat or UVB, but you can certainly go that route. Set light on a timer for a proper day/night cycle and you’re good to go.

[@bigbonedthankyou7849]

@@JessicasAnimalFriends So no night light bulb just leave them in the dark.

[@caterscarrots3407]

@@bigbonedthankyou7849 Yep. If it gets too cold say in the winter at night, you can use a Ceramic Heat Emitter for that, it will provide heat without adding any light.

[@bigbonedthankyou7849]

@@caterscarrots3407 thank u

[@caterscarrots3407]

@@bigbonedthankyou7849 You're welcome. I've been researching reptiles and reptile care for years and hopefully I will get my bearded dragon soon. It's been 2 years now that my parents have been working on the enclosure, inside and outside. My dad built the enclosure at work. And my mom has been busy building a castle out of styrofoam to go inside the enclosure.

[@itsTigereye]

Unfortunately my beardie became impacted from the repti chips we tried as a substrate for her. Plenty of research and people who said it would be fine and it wasn’t. She just continuously licks and ingests the chips while she digs, more so than normal I assume. It’s a shame because I wanted her to be able to dig, but her safety is more important to me! Been told multiple times that proper husbandry would make it fine but nope. In other news, any substrate for a dig box you would recommend? I don’t want her to get impacted again because she’s just gonna keep ingesting it.

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

I use just organic top soil & washed play sand, both sifted to remove chunks. I haven’t had any impaction issues!

[@itsTigereye]

@@JessicasAnimalFriends Sounds good! Will definitely give it a try!

[@annasaussieanimals4678]

Its funny because this loose substrate controversy is not a massive thing in Australia. Most of the time people tend to take the stance of 'your husbandry is what matters. If you can't get it right, don't have loose substrate until you do. But once you know what you are doing and know your beardie you will be able to judge if its right for you.'

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@itsTigereye]

Unfortunately even with proper husbandry it doesn’t always go well. My beardie can’t do loose substrate because she licks it all the time and gets all blocked up. It’s a real shame because I was hoping for her to do well on it so she could dig! I’ve got proper temps, humidity, diet, etc. Just not for her.

[@jacobreynolds7285]

What kind of substrate do you give to Nova?

[@emilyclarkson7541]

In regards to the clean up crew for arid bioactives: I have had really good luck with mealworm beetles and super beetles as custodians. They are little pigs, they don’t typically get eaten cause they will defensively secrete and my beardie only had to try it once, and they are totally fine with drier environments

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@lenccal2145]

What a great video! It got me thinking. Has anyone mentioned keeping the right humidity in the context of substrate? I live in the UK, where the air humidity is high. My bioactive enclosures never fall below 50% even for arid climate species (I water those once a week - only plants, I don't spray the whole enclosure). That's obviously way too high for a beardie (20%-30% ideally). I struggled to keep my late boy's humidity below 40% in spite of the correct temperature and plenty of ventilation. Does sand + top soil mix increase humidity in the viv? I have a feeling it does, but never experimented with it. Love your videos ❤️.

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

Their ambient humidity is in the low 30s with substrate. In their old enclosures it hovered in the mid to high 20s. So there was a slight increase but not enough to be in a harmful zone. It’s definitely something you’d have to experiment with on your end to know for sure.

[@lenccal2145]

@@JessicasAnimalFriends Thank you! If I ever decide to keep a beardie again, I will need to experiment with substrate and mini dehumidifiers.

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@the_animal_ark]

I love lose substrate Dirt is best I use coco brick , organic soil & slate This changes when I clean it but I have change to a half bioactive setup God bless 😂😇🙏

[@testaklese]

I hear people saying that bioactive can be good for them, but doesn't it require moisture that's too high to be healthy for them?

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

This isn’t Bioactive

[@reecebower9934]

I just built a new terrarium it's 2 feet deep 4 feet wide and 5 feet tall. I built rock walls for it. My temperatures are perfect. My dragon poops great and he's full grown also eats from my hands or a bowl. But id like to get substrate. I've been doing a lot of research and obviously I can't get a good answer because of the conflicting opinions. But what are your suggestions for substrate?

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

Something sand and soil based is best

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@Silenceisay]

i loved this video :3 i do bio for my healthy geckos who enjoy it

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

Fair point!

[@videosbythemadanimalhouse]

Lignocel is similar to aspen. Personally wouldn't use it for a beardie though😬

[@JessicasAnimalFriends]

Ahh thank you! I have never heard of it but yeah if it’s a wood shaving NOPE

[@videosbythemadanimalhouse]

@@JessicasAnimalFriends it's often used for arid species of snakes😊

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@rodkirt9273]

I asked a group for information about substrates : if anybody had tried it .? I received one ‘ thing ‘ : I was banned from the group without any explanation . I was not allowed to contact the administrators to ask “ What ? “. I have since turned off all Bearded Dragon related groups . I didn’t need the types of negative scorn that I was receiving from the groups that were supposed to be providing ‘ help/information ‘ for the betterment of Beardies . Kinda ironic ?

[@hazelgrunts]

The people against loose substrate make me facepalm. Like, if it was so dangerous these lizards wouldn’t have survived to the present day. If a lizard dies of impaction it’s because you either used calcium sand or you’re feeding them on their substrate instead on putting the food on a flat surface.

[@itsTigereye]

This isn’t always true. My beardie was given reptichips as a substrate to give her the option to dig and she continuously licked and ingested chips while she dug until she was impacted. She has proper UVB, temps, space, diet, etc. Also, keep in mind that they live for ~5 years in the wild and ~15 years in captivity - it’s a big difference. I did not feed her in her tank OR use calcium sand. There are pros and cons to both and it’s not going to work for every beardie.

[@hazelgrunts]

@@itsTigereye there are worse loose substrates than others. The beardie probably kept licking the substrate because it wasn’t familiar with it (After all, they are Australian animals) and I’m guessing that a more naturalistic substrate wouldn’t be licked nearly as much. You’re right in that loose substrate isn’t for every beardie, but it should be given a shot at least

[@kendravoracek3636]

🖤🖤

[@mkgthegoat5609]

HAHAHA FIRST I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS

[@dragonsmarttt]

I would love for you to join my bearded dragon Facebook group! Type “Dragon Smart” and you’ll find us! ❤️

[@jessicaspuppyworld8505]

First