What substrate do you use for your beardie???

So, I picked up 2 showcase cages and I am going to put the beardie in one and the bts in the other; right now the beardie is on carpet, but I really don't like it and I want to put him on substrate. I have a couple bags of fine eco-earth and I was planning on mixing that with a bag of repti-sand to give it a little more structure, however when I went to research this (2 large bags of eco-earth to one small bag of sand), everywhere says avoid the sand, get top soil; others say mix sand and dirt together...what do you all use???? I don't want him to get impacted, he gets veggies in a bowl in his cage, but I will be feeding him dubias and other live stuff in a seperate enclosure.

how old/big is your beardie? GENERALLY adult and big sub adults will do fine on sand. the big no-no is Calcium Sand. This is a very dangerous sand for your beardie to eat at any age. It reduced the acidity in your beardie's stomach, rendering it less able to digest it's food properly and severely increasing the risk of impaction.

I have heard of MANY breeders having years and years of great success using sifted fine fine fine Children's Play Sand!! I have used it magnificently as well. Dirt/sand mix is also good, but the closest you can get to their natural habitat would actually be tile. :-)

One thing I did with great success was to use the play sand, but pick up a large tile from Lowes and place it on one side for the feeding bowl. It reduced the problems with the greens falling into the sand! but still allowed me to benifit from the easy-cleanup that sand provided.

He was a rescue so I'm not sure of age, but he is 12" or so, I'm not too worried about impaction, but just being cautious. The tile to put the food dish on is a great idea , I will probably do that. There will be plenty of flat rocks and basking areas as well. I heard about using children's play sand, but I'm not really comfortable using just sand (bad experiences).

Sand is a great substrate for bearded dragons and you shouldn't have any problems using the play sand that Jaded Heart mentioned. We've kept many many dragons on sand for many years without a single problem. Don't use repti sand or any of the other pet brand sands... they can cause impactions and injuries. Certain types of marine sand is okay as well.

If you're not comfortable using just sand, get a bag of Bacto top soil and mix them together. Bacto is the best brand and the soil is nothing but pure, clean, and sifted. The big box stores don't carry it so you'll need to go to a specialty garden store to find it. Eco Earth looks a little too fibrous to me so I would stay away from it for dragons.

Thanks, I will check out the Bacto top soil and mix that with play sand.

I went to home depot and bought a yard of outdoor carpet, then cut several pieces to the size of the enclosure. Works great and you can swap them out for cleaning.

I use non stick padded shelf liner that has a bamboo pattern that I buy @ Wally World and cut to size. I wash it in 1-2 times and replace it every other month or so.

I had a big tank with a divider in the middle, half carpet stuff half sand.

We use ground up walnut. For me it is a lot less messy then sand if water is spilled. As for everyone saying if it is used beardies are more likely to get impacted.. I take my beardies out if I am feeding crickets and all of their dishes have taller sides then most bowls.