vita-sand?...

[Stevo26]

my girlfriend just resently acquired a young leopard that she immediatly fell in love with, however i currently am using paper towels instead of any substrate, i myself have cresteds and tokays, and chameleons, none of which are desert dwellers so i have never had to deal with the sand impaction thing. i have read many care sheets but they are all a little different. I was wondering how safe the calcium or vitamin based sand is... if any one could give me and advice from personal experience. like i said im currently using paper towels but it looks so tacky... and i much prefer the natural look. thank you

[hooter]

As anyone eles will tell you calcium or vitamin based sand is garbage. I use paper towls for my Leos. You say that you much prefer the natural look but when owning any animal its not about what you like but whats best for them.

If your going to use sand I would suggest regular play sand from home depot and always wait untill they are grown. Some will agree with me and some will say sand is fine but I have seen a thousand post on online forums about impaction and dead Leos because of sand. I have yet to see a thread about a dead Leo that was caused by paper towls.

[tdherper]

Stevo26,

I use tile as substrate for my leo's and they do fine. It looks great and is easy to clean..

td

[Stevo26]

the last thing im worried about is looks... thats the reason i asked the question, and thats the reason i have yet to switch from paper towels to anything else. however yes, if possible and safe for the animal i prefer the habitat to be as closely related to the animals natural surrounds. so lets no get snappy

[hooter]

Stevo26,

Sorry if I came off snappy I didnt mean to sound rude but i'm just trying to get my point across. Oh, and btw sand is not a Leopard Geckos natrual surroundings. Their feet show that very well I might add. I would go with what tdherper said and use some dark colored tile.