introducing sand into a beardie habitiat

At what age can you introduce sand into a beardie habitat? Im not exactly sure of mines age but head to tail he is about 7 inches. I would like to put sand into his tank and get rid of the mat.
Thanks for any advice.

Got my beardies when they were babies, and they've always been on sand. I've had no problems. I'm aware that some people get anxious about ingestion of sand causing impaction, but, again, I've had no problems.

scalyfoot wrote:

Got my beardies when they were babies, and they've always been on sand.  I've had no problems.  I'm aware that some people get anxious about ingestion of sand causing impaction, but, again, I've had no problems.

Ive seen several cases of impaction caused by sand, several weve taken in and rehabilitated. Calic-Sand and crushed walnut are horrible and two of the most common we see issues from. I wouldnt usually recommend loose substrate, especially for babies but sand for older/larger dragons is not as bad as you may read.

That being said if you use sand, use a clean fine playsand. I would recommend trying to avoiding feeding insects on it as they tend to ingest sand when eating. 16" and 1 year old would be my recommendation for using sand.