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There are a couple of cons with this substrate though. It takes a lot of cleaning and scrubbing to get 100% clean and it might often be better to put in a whole new piece once it gets dirty. Are you worry about your excavator clay collapsing after finishing the build? There’s no need to worry!
The carpet-slate combo sounds like a fine solution to me. Just make sure you wash the carpet regularly – ideally weekly – to avoid bacterial build-up. You can get two carpets and simply swap them because they need some time to dry.Excavator clay also holds its shape well, so your reptile can have stable burrows and tunnels, which benefits their enrichment and overall happiness. While this might seem obvious, it’s important to touch on this question. It’s very clear to us by some people’s choice of a substrate that they really don’t fully understand what substrate is and what its purpose is. Top Tip: If you need a new piece of Sand Mat then simply use the old piece as a template so you don’t have to re-measure the tank again. Reptile carpet is usually the choice if you want fast clean-ups and easy setups. For the most part, it is fine to use, except blue tongue skinks love to dig and burrow.
Excavator Clay is the substrate we recommend for bearded dragons that are constantly trying to dig, this usually means gravid females and even beardies around the brumation period.Something else to consider is that times will be slippery for your Beardie and they don’t give them the best surface walk on and they won’t provide a surface where they can keep their nails short either. Their substrate needs to give them the opportunity to do these things that Mother Nature programmed them to want to do. Just because we have decided to keep them as pets doesn’t mean we get to deny them their natural instincts. Reptile carpet is a popular substrate choice as it is soft, does not create dust, and provides a natural look. It’s also easy to clean, as you can remove it and wash it. We feel that this little bit of extra maintenance is more than worth the trade-off of giving Bacardi a place she can dig and burrow and be happy.
On the other hand, paper towels look completely unnatural; they will prevent leos from expressing their natural digging behavior, and they do not provide a good grip for adult individuals. Alfalfa pellets are also dusty. As previously touched upon, dust is not something you want to have flying around in your beardie’s enclosure. It’s a surefire way to cause a respiratory problem. You will see beardies at your local big-box pet store living on sand. You will see some exotic morphs (bred variants with striking visual characteristics) displayed on colored sand that accentuates the morph’s coloring. You will see some people online insist that sand is the best option because that’s what they live on in the wild. Now we come to the options that we, as beardie owners, would and do actually use. After considering all the options available, which comes out on top for us?Sand particles that are not mixed well may contribute to impaction (unlikely if your BTS isn’t suffering from calcium deficiency) This is not the same for all wood, so we are definitely not giving an endorsement to just any wood chip-type substrate. Repti Chips are what we use and recommend specifically because of the soft nature of Aspen wood. Another downside of tile is that while it is the easiest to clean, that only counts if nothing gets between the tiles. If your bearded dragon poops where the tiles come together, you will have to pull the tiles completely out to properly clean. This will also mean cleaning whatever you have placed between the tiles and the bottom of the tank. This is why, when we were deciding on what type of substrate to use, we first looked to bearded dragons in the wild for clues. Who should you trust when it comes to the kind of substrate to use? We think that looking at Mother Nature and thousands of years of evolution is a great place to start!
Store-bought sand could be any number of things that are absolutely not what Mother Nature evolved the bearded dragon to live on. What you will read below is based on their years of success in raising happy, healthy, impaction-free bearded dragons. What is substrate? Having a place to burrow can also be very important for female dragons as without being able to dig, they will refuse to lay their eggs. If they have a group of eggs to lay and don’t do it, it can cause serious health issues. If you’re a paludarium owner with reptiles, it’s worth giving Zoo Med excavator clay substrate a try. Bearded dragons love to dig and burrow. The substrate you use will end up in their eyes, ears, and lungs on occasion. Ground walnut shells are a terrible choice for these reasons alone. Bark, mulch, and coconut fiber
Zoo Med Excavator Clay Review
It’s also very important when and if your dragon brumates (see our complete brumation guide here ). When they brumate, they do it for anywhere from several weeks to several months. About five or six layers of newspaper will be about right to make this substrate sturdy and absorbent enough. 3. Reptile Carpet Lastly, and this was the reason we didn’t choose to use tile, your bearded dragon cannot dig or burrow in tile. We feel strongly enough about this that we immediately eliminated anything our little Bacardi couldn’t dig in. This might not be a deal-breaker for you (and it certainly isn’t for many), but it is for us. Some lizards are able to dig helical burrows pretty deep. They can dig as low as 3.6 meters below their environment’s level.
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