NO! NO! NO! Once again a pet store passing BAD information. If you just have to have sand i and almost everyone here will say no to sand use washed play sand the calci-sand just entices your leo to eat it.
You'll get a unanmous DON'T USE vote on this one. contrary to it's claims of being completely digestible, it's not. the sand will sit inside the leo and collect there eventually causing impaction.
question for spot hey man, interesting post. just wondering if you had a source for that info? ive never heard of that before, have you done any necropsies or anything? i beleive you that it does, just want to do some reading for myself! it also seems that the dyes that they use would be pretty bad for a smaller lizard. there probably not naturally made, and purple sand would prolly mess with a lizards mind! haha, thanks for any and all replies! -richard
that has got to be the funniest thing in this forum ... and yet its true ... what does a gecko think when it sees purple sand?
well i'm on the no vote for the calcium sand. but that's only because most people are against using anytype of sand. if it's an adult you can use sand... i know that it is an impactation risk... but guess what feed them on bark or if you're neurotic papertowel... i've seen very healthy leos on a combo of half sand and half bark and they've done very well... just sand though is not recommended, is ok... just don't feed on it if possible...
VAherper, I'm assuming you're asking about what I posted about the calcium not digesting...No, I haven't done a necroscopy, but there was an experiment done where they put the calci-sand in some acid (higher acide content than found in the GI system of a leo) and the sand just sat there for days. Jeffreh, one of the mods here has the details. You're right about the funky dyes too. I read a post here a long while back with someone complaining that their leos feet turned orange and stayed that way for a while!
The color may have been more of an environment thing. I believe it was Shrap that wrote about the color of a gecko's substrate, and the temps in the environment having a big effect on their coloring. On a white substrate, they tend to get lighter, dark they get darker. I can't remember if he did anything with colors, though. I'll see if I can find that thread, it was many months ago.
thanks! Thanks for the info! i think that i might have seen that experiment too, just replicated here in VA. Ya, it also seems that some of the darker dyes, like purple or black, if ingested, would eventually leach out of the sand and into the GI tract of the lizard. i know that if a dog drinks food coloring, (yea, weird i know, you should see some of the people and pets that come into the vets office where i work,) it passes through the GI tract and passes out with the feces. has anyone experienced this with any of the calci-sand colors? that would probably raise a red flag in my mind! also, is over clacifacation a problem in leos? i know that it can be in some of the tree dragon species. thanks! -richard
First reason its bad, its because leos can actually sense calcium and will readily lick it up when in need. The added calcium in the sand makes this worse for leos, simply because they see this as a calcium source and will eat it up. Secondly, The colors tend to attract lizards to want to eat it.another bad thing Third, it was not Shrap it was me. Even after a few sheds my leo would not get rid of his calci sand color around his toes, belly, and tail base. It was almost as though it was likea tatoo or something, it didnt seem to go away. After a while however it did go away, a few baths also heled do the trick. What Shrap said was correct, but what he said also doesnt exactly go along with this discussion. Fourth, prolly one of the dumbess reasons yet. They say on the bag that it "clumps when wet" as if to try and sell it better. Well, what the hecko do you think it does in the stomach? It clumps and becomes hard little beadlets which....well dont pass so easily. Finally, the reason Spot mentioned. Cheri gave a site a while back in the leo forum when this was talked about. I lost the site, but if I remember correctly something was used with a ph of I beleive 14, which is even higher than a leos stomach acids acidity. They added Calci sand to this, and waited a few days. After I beleive 3 days, only 33% (on average) of the sand was dissolved. That means it would take 9 days for all the sand to dissolve! Over the course of 9 days (or more) the leo will simply be ingesting even more of the substrate and food overtop of that! It's really not hard to see the deaths by this either. My vet told me the #1 problem, and deaths he sees in reptiles is from calcium sand impaction. Heck, do a google or yahoo search on "Calcium Sand Impactions" and take a look at all the stuff that comes up. Here are a few sites I saved for this kind of...disccusion: http://www.pythons.com/calcium.html http://www.anapsid.org/substrates.html
I was just thinking of this today if you want to do a quick test at home if you have some calci-sand left over and a can of coke pour some sand in the bottom of a glass add the coke and let stand for a day or so and check how much sand is left. I use coke to eat rust off bumper hitches and stuff like that, i think it would be interesting to see how much sand is left. Bradon
No, any commercial sands of this sort are a big NO. Washed and Screened playsand can be okay in some cases, if you take precautions and do your research. It generally comes in finer grains than calci sand, and its not colored with harmful, appealing dies or hve added stuff that attracts herps to want to eat it.
Well the reason i was wondering is i put it through my sifter to get any rocks or debries bigger the about a pin hole. I figuared it would be o.k.
are you talking about playsand? sifted/screened playsand can be used for adult herps if you are experienced with herps and know the early danger signs. Screening calci/repti sand isn't going to make it any better as their problem is that they clump when moist and stay that way.
Well i have reti sand and it is the white. My herp vet said as long as i feed my lizard in a diferent tank. (i dont have him yet)
Wormie why did you ask us if it was safe to use if you have already decided to put your lizard at risk by going ahead and useing that sand? Bradon
