Is coconut fibre safe?

[One More Herper]

Is coconut fibre safe for most species of reptiles?? I was thinking of using it for beardies.

Thanks

[the_frog_man]

sand is better for beardies coconut fibre i only use for frogs my brother uses it for his beardies laying box

[crazyboy]

i don't know if it is safe but i definitly WOULDN'T use sand.

[drewlowe]

Wheat bran and bed a beast are fine for beardies. Look for some threads on the topic of sand and you will see why.

[Linds]

Originally posted by the_frog_man
sand is better for beardies

With sand, it is only a matter of <b>when</b> will your beardie become impacted, not <b>if</b>...

[One More Herper]

Coco Fibre it is!
Thanks All

-Ben

[JonD]

Coconut fibre is good if you keep it moist. If it is dried right out it gets very dusty.

[Bighead]

sort of true. you don't want the humidity to get too high. bed-a-beast is pretty dusty. I just switched to wheat bran and love it so far. I got a big bag of it from a farm stor for $8.50 and it will fill up my 80 gallon 2 times at least. It is a bit dusty too at first, but it seems to be more digestible and maybe even beneficial if eaten. For me to fill up my tank with bed-a-beast it would have been at least $15 and there wouldn't be as much for them to dig in. One advantage to coco fiber is that it is less suseptible (sp) to mold than wheat bran. As you will see when searching, paper towels, then newspaper, then tiles and slate, then the others are the SAFEST substrates guaranteed. There ARE cases of impaction with sand and a few other common substrates so you are taking a risk if you try them whether it be 1 in 10,000 or one in 10. It's hard to say how likely it is. If you want to go with something "safe" they can DIG IN, try wheat bran or carefresh. They will appreciate it. Also, hand feed them or pull off the crix legs and put them in a bowl to minimaize substrate ingestion. As always, JMO.

[drewlowe]

I use bed a beast dry for 3 years and have never had a problem with it being dusty.