Tom's response to "Garden State Tortoise" Video

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

I realize we're 10 pages in at this point. So incase there are others who have only skimmed the thread let me reiterate why I started this from the beginning. I believe the reason we see impaction from sand and other substrate is partly if not mostly husbandry issues. My thoughts were if I could figure out what those were we could improve our husbandry minus the sand. It was never intended to be a let's all add sand to everything thread. There are so many people using sand without issue that I wanted to compare and maybe see what they were or were not doing. I have realized there are many variables here and have found this discussion very enlightening. It was never in defense of adding sand.

Fair enough, thanks for the clarification🙂

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

It makes such a great soil additive. Keeps the soil airy, plants thrive in it, keep nails filed down, encourages more natural digging behaviour, etc etc. Inside once its "cycled" its creates really stable parameters. My outdoor pens would be a muddy mess right now without it. My indoor is just a replica of my outdoor setups.

I guarantee the problem isnt the sand. Its feeding off the substrate with high moisture produce in a dry environment. Which will cause issues regardless. This is just a hill this guy has decided to die on for some reason.

All those benefits you’ve listed can be provided with safe substrates that don’t have the added potential risks though no? not just impaction, irritating the skin and eyes for example😕

 

[Tom]

Tom I have seen pictures of aquariums and open top indoor enclosures with only sand as a substrate. I believe they were always keeping sulcata. I'm not sure where this idea came from.

Yes. I remember those days. Bearded dragons and leopard geckos too.