Is calcium sand a absolute NO for Bearded Dragons? I ask because the person who I may get a Bearded Dragon from breeds them and told me he keeps a lot on calsium sand and some on reptile carpet, depending if they constantly eat the sand or not.

My other question is about the type of Bearded Dragons. Can anyone provide me information or a link about the different sub species of Bearded Dragons such as the German Giant, the different colorations, and I've also heard of quite a few other species.

Thanks

Sand is not very good for anything but a fully grown beardy. They like to use their tongue to "taste" their environment and ingestion is inevitable. Impaction is especially bad in younger Bearded Dragons. I once used calci-sand for my first leo but after I kept on getting smothered by silica dust every time I changed the sand, i changed to newspaper. Now everything I own (besides the frogs) is on newspaper. even my bird! lol. anyways, i guess the point is that sand just is risky. Adults would probably be ok but not babies or juvenilles.

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-Adam

"Help Protect our Planet from Overcollection, Purchase Aquacultured Livestock and Captive Bred Herps"

Calci-sand is bigger grains and quite sharp. It's not recommended for any herp really other than by pet stores. A general rule of thumb is Bearded Dragons under 8" snout to tail length should not be on particulate substrate at all. Paper towel, newspaper or reptile carpet are best. Adults can be housed on sand, the best being your plain ordinary playground sand, bought - not scooped from the local sandbox, lol. I prefer outdoor carpet and use it for all our herps except geckos and iguanas.

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Val

http://www.reptilerescuerichmond.org

It is still really an individual preference, although many people will not advocate the use of any particle substrate, as there is always risk of impaction.

Particularly with babies it is safer to stick with newspaper, paper towels, carpet or lino. We house our adults on play sand, and this is our personal choice, but some will not keep any reptile on any kind of sand.

Re. calci-sand in particular, we used to use calci-sand with our Bearded Dragons, and although we did not change for this reason, heard lots about it being more harmful. We actually stopped using calci-sand because we changed to play-sand, which is finer and much cheaper.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

Rachal seems to have summed up the sand....lolThere are many phases of bearded dragons. There are some books that have great info about them. The Dragon Manual and Your Bearded Dragons Life.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

Oh I forgot the morphs and different types of dragon

The German Giant is a larger dragon, and there are many different colour morphs of bearded dragon, though colour morphs will often fetch much more money than a normal phase. There are also different sub-species, like the Rankins dragon, which is a close relative of the Bearded Dragon, but is a much smaller species.

Can't really point you in the direction of where to buy these from as I'm in the UK, but do a search and you should come up with something. I know places like Dragons Den are pretty big in America, and they breed a few colour morphs, or Marsha has some very pretty babies

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

Hey everyone thanks for the help. I got the Bearded Dragon and I'm using paper towel for substrate.

Good choice, I personally am a newspaper guy for almost all my herps, it may not be the prettiest, but it is the cheapest, safest and easiest to clean up.

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Answers are great. But I prefer questions!

Visit me at www.jaysreptiles.com

I agree with jay. Instead of having to spend the day taking out all of the expensive substrate and putting in new, i can just pick up the soiled section of newspaper and go on with my life. It takes about 45 seconds.

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-Adam

"Help Protect our Planet from Overcollection, Purchase Aquacultured Livestock and Captive Bred Herps"

Go to http://vandivers.com/, and they show you pictures of the different types of Bearded Dragons.