Best substrate to use?????

[makaveli]

I was wondering what is the best natural looking substrate to use, I am using papertowels right now but I don't like them the crix hide under it. A guy at the local petstore said he uses a new repti cal for his leo's it fine sand and he said it's made so leo's cam digest it easy? He has 60 leo's at his home babies and adults and said he hasn't had any problems yet?

[Siretsap]

It's all a market thing. Don't buy it. Any sand isn't that good for your reptile. Some reptiles will live on it without problems. But others will ingest it and have impactions. The calci-sand has a part of calcium. But if your leo ingests a lot, you are in the same situation.
Paper towel and newspaper is he best I found yet,

[Bartman]

use news paper and to make it impossible to hide under do this.

lay a thin layer measured so it fits right in the tank. Than tape it at the sides. Than place temporary pieces on top, about 3 or 4 layers and than they wont hide under and when they poo you wont have to untape it. Thats what i did and they didnt go under. You can try going with a worm diet, thats what i do now causs i hate crix a lot! lol..feed em meals, silks, and any other worm you can find..not to many wax worms though..have a lot of fat content.

[Colonel SB]

I use Paper Towel it's cheap absorbant and not ingestable.

[CDN-Cresties]

I agree with Colonel SB, paper towel all the way. :)

-Steve-

[xxbad]

I like the reptile carpet its a safe kind

[Wuntu Menny]

Oh c'mon, don't start this one again...

[Clownfishie]

Personally, I use newspaper -- paper towel works equally as well though. If you dont' want the feeder insects getting underneath, just tape it down...

I've used ReptiCarpet too... it worked just fine, it just became too much of a pain to clean when the collection grew big enough... lol...

[Alicewave]

I use 12"x12" ceramic tiles (pick one with a rough surface) from home depot. They cut them for you, cost about 2 dollars each and last forever.

[drewlowe]

If your wanting something more natural looking than papertowles i would suggest slate or ceramic tiles. It looks good easy to clean crickets can't hide under it. For a 20 gallon cage it would cost around 10 dollars and you never have to replace it (just clean it) unless you break a section. Another one i like is bed a beast it's coconut fibers. Like the rest i would stay far away from sand and calcium sand to hight of a risk for impactation.

[striko_69]

any sand is bad, dont try it, it is a risk!

paper towel is the best, but if you want something nicer, try astro-turf, or potting soil mixed with a bit of sand, but astro-turf is the best i have used

[MartinW]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't sand only ingested when a leo tries to catch some food and gets a mouthful of sand? If that's the case then wouldn't there be no danger in using sand if you dish feed your leos?

Martin

[eyespy]

Each and every tongueflick can bring in swallowed grains of sand. So even when they are fed elsewhere, active and curious leos do get sand impactions.