Help! Sneezing, bubbles

[Emilia&Mose]

hello so here is the situation

I have my six month Sulcata in a terrarium that is 40 gallons, open top, cage opens from front.
Warm side 102 degrees F and cool is 85-77 degrees F. He has a heating pad under the warm side of the tank on at all times. He was recently given to me for Christmas and was moved to a totally new substrate. This stuff seems kind of dusty to me but I don’t know how safe it is for me to wet it down.

So here is what he is doing.
He has been eating great, pooping once a day, every morning. He seems to occasionally sneeze and this causes dust to blow upwards. He then retracts into his shell. Once he sneezes he tends to sneeze again about two or three more times. He has good retraction though. I noticed the other day he had bubbles from his nose. No mucus, clear eyes. He seemed to get this after a soak, so the next few days I didn’t soak him, bubbles went unnoticed and I didn’t pick him up these days either as I think that stresses him out. Well today he decided to get a drink while sitting in his bowl (first time I’ve witnessed his drinking but the water does go down) after this I noticed bubbles again. No mucus. No runny eyes. He is a baby so he sleeps a lot but also enjoys walking around his tank “patrolling” it.

My question is... is it possible this is all just because of stress? Should he see a vet ? (Because I feel that people are being slightly jumpy about going to see the vet and I don’t have a reptile vet around here that I know of so that wouldn’t be much help anyways)
Should I wet the substrate more, but I don’t want to cause him to get a cold from the damp substrate lowing tank temps... what do you guys think??

 

[Cheryl Hills]

Well, he should be in a closed chamber with high humidity 80 to 100 percent humidity. The substrate should be moist enough that there is no dust. Temps should be above 80 degrees in the entire enclosure and 95 to 100 for a basking spot. Have you read the care sheets in the salcata section? Give them a read. They will give you all the info you need. He is probably sneezing because the substrate is way to dry. As long as the temps are where they are supposed to be, he will not get sick from wet substrate. What gets them sick is to cold and moist.

 

[Emilia&Mose]

Well, he should be in a closed chamber with high humidity 80 to 100 percent humidity. The substrate should be moist enough that there is no dust. Temps should be above 80 degrees in the entire enclosure and 95 to 100 for a basking spot. Have you read the care sheets in the salcata section? Give them a read. They will give you all the info you need. He is probably sneezing because the substrate is way to dry. As long as the temps are where they are supposed to be, he will not get sick from wet substrate. What gets them sick is to cold and moist.

thank you, I will make sure I do that then, how do I moisten his substrate?

 

[JoesMum]

thank you, I will make sure I do that then, how do I moisten his substrate?

Take the decor out. Tip water in from a jug. Mix thoroughly with your hands. Repeat until all of it is evenly damp right to the bottom and into the corners

 

[Emilia&Mose]

Okay

Take the decor out. Tip water in from a jug. Mix thoroughly with your hands. Repeat until all of it is evenly damp right to the bottom and into the corners

Okay, the tank is now moist. His substrate is similar to earth as an earth worm would live. He is sneezing a ton but it’s probably because I disrupted everything. I took him out when I watered down his substrate. He has reptisoil mix of soil, peat moss, sand, and carbon for growing plants or cacti in his tank. He seems to like it much better. I will update if I see anything improving or getting worse. How would I attach an image of his tank on the forum?