Ok, I know what 99% of you are thinking: "NO!!!! DONT DO IT!!!" But I think i have found a "safe" sand that truely is 100% digestible! I stumbled across this on kingsnake:
http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1025103,1025560
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There's Calci-sand, and there's Calci-sand lol. Most brands of calcium based sands carried by pet stores are similar in both grain structure and material. They are mostly composed of jagged, sharp grains of the mineral CALCITE. This is a complex subject, but you can think of calcite as the "crystalline" form of Calcium-very much like diamond is the crystalline form of Carbon. And, like diamond, calcite is very hard and resists being broken down-especially in your lizard's stomach! Not a good substrate choice for our reptiles! In fact, the only thing I know of that's worse is the "crushed walnut shell", "desert blend" type......
There is an alternative. One company (that i know of), Carib-Sea, makes a sand composed entirely of smooth, rounded grains of "aragonite" (coral sand). This product dissolves VERY readily-in fact if you wet your fingers and take a small pinch of it, you can feel it dissolve as you rub the fingers together! And what's even nicer is that this product (Reptilite)is roughly half the price of most other calcium sands! I've been using it for four years now on a variety of geckos and other desert and savannah lizards with not a single impaction.
Sorry for the long post, but I've been breeding leopards since 1980, and I've tried every substrate out there. I really think you should try this one.
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I researched this product and it seems to be what it says it is.
http://carib-sea.com/pages/products/...s/reptile.html
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Reptilite™ - An all natural calcium substrate, ideal for desert dwelling reptiles and arachnids. The naturally spherical grains won’t scratch your valuable animals inside or out! There are no artificial dyes or chemicals in Reptilite™. This low impact substrate also contains strontium and magnesium; while being free of silica and phosphates.
Though not intended as a food source or supplement, it is 100% edible and easily digestible. In fact, Reptilite™ is made of aragonite, the most soluble form of calcium carbonate available, allowing reptiles to easily ingest necessary calcium for proper bone development.
Extremely affordable, and easy to use; just add to a depth of approximately 2 inches. Spot clean daily and replace the entire bed every 4 to 6 months.
The product is trusted by professional reptile breeders and hobbyists alike. CaribSea offers 5 different colors of Reptilite™, allowing you to create a natural looking habitat for your animals. Reptilite™ is available in 10 and 20 pound bags.
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Has anyone had any first-hand experiance with this sand? Ive read that you can easily desolve it in water, which means that it would easily be digestible as well.
PS- I also found an article about the undigestibleness of alot of those "100% digestible" calcium sands at:
www.pythons.com/calcium.html
(You might have to highlight it to read the chart, it for some reason doesnt show unless highlighted)
Sand as a substrate
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