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Posted by Mario-GN on November 16, 2002 at 06:01:59:
In Reply to: Yes, another question on SAND... posted by Chrysemys on November 13, 2002 at 19:06:41:
WHOA, looks at the post fly. Time for my 2 and a half cents.
Well I believe the original post asked which was better out of the 3, Calci-sand, Repti-Sand, and Play Sand. The answer is by far, play sand. But now if paper towel was given as a choice, then by far paper towel. I read quite a bit in this whole thread, more then just to go topic by topic, so here goes.
Leos are from a desert environment. However just because it’s a desert doesn’t mean it is free flowing mounds of sand either. Actually they would be found in the rocky hillsides. These areas are composed of shrubbery and hardened packed sand that is strewn together with clay and rock. Not loose sand. Of course it would be idiotic to say there is absolutely not loose sand. I’m sure there is.
Now that being taken into account, you have to remember, this is also in the wild where it’s survival of the fittest, not captivity. And even in the wild, I’m sure some may die of impaction, but probably before it has a time to die from it, it will already by at more risk of becoming food by a predator. If all the gecko grew up and lived their lives in the wild, then it would quickly become over populated. This just isn’t likely to happen unless there are in a non-native environment, then anything can happen.
Now in the cage, you are talking about a small, enclosed environment. One that they are forced to live in. They can’t simply move to their best environment. So if they are forced to live in sand, then their chances go up of risking in digesting some of it greatly.
Many leo species do not even come into contact with loose sand and avoid it at all cost. So if lets say the average life span of a wild gecko is um maybe 3-4 years (just a rough guess) and captivity is 20 -25 years when cared for properly. Then their you are increasing it’s life span by 5 to 8 times. And if the gecko may only come into contact with loose sand very briefly and is trying to avoid it. It’s most likely not going to stop to grab a bite. Plus it may just contact it for a min or to cross it, maybe once or every few days at max. So you’re talking what like under 20-25 min of its lifetime on sand, in where its on the move.
This isn’t the same thing as 20-25 years in captivity on loose sand forced to eat from it. And before someone saids its not, I feed from bowls. Right, but sand does get in the bowels and insects do escape.
You also have to remember that in the wild, all their food is gut loaded very well. More then we can ever mimic in captivity. All the different types of insects, and food’s that these insects eat constantly. Theirs no comparison. You also have to remember that also, even though they do have to eat what’s available they can still pick and choose to some degree to balance out their nutritional needs. In captivity, this isn’t an option. They most eat what we give them. We can only come close to mimicking their environment and food. This is why we have to supplement their diet with multivitamins or calcium powder. We also have to be looking for signs of vitamin deficiency or deficiencies resulting from lack of a certain mineral. We also have to look for signs of over dosing on a given mineral or vitamin.
This is a major reason my Leo’s lick the ground and eat the substrate. It’s a survival instinct. Basically a last resort one to survive. In the wild they probably never have to do this expect maybe during times of hardship like a drought (their prey would be more scarce and not as well gut loaded).
By using a calcium based substrate. It is more luring to them, especially when they start lacking in a vitamin, mineral, or more importantly, calcium or developing MBD form not using vit. D3. Even overdosing on Vit. D3 can cause similar effects from what I read. So they could possibly to my assumption think they are lacking it and eat more, or eat more substrate to help balance it out. This of course will only make the problem worse.
Another thing to not is generally the sand is smaller in grain size, even after the time the calci-sand has spent in the geckos stomach and time to run its course. The grains of calcium are still larger then what the sand grain is. I believe there is a breeders site with this info provided on a experiment they did. So calcium sand obviously is not being an improvement, or play sand, but is in fact worse.
It’s also commonly stated that since the release of these problems, impaction cases have went up substantially in vet offices. This would also suggest a major problem.
One thing that is over looked as well is the fact the many people claim they clump easier. This would make since due to the way it is. Clumping up would increase the risks of impaction as well.
Another deal with all sands, but more less the finely grained calcium based sands is the dust issues. This is reported to cause upper respiratory problems.
Calcium us also a antacid. It neutralizes stomach acids. It will basically buffer the acids ability to digest the food. So this intern can cause constipation and possible impaction right their alone, even if its not blocking the system up it’s self, the undigested food can.
Impaction and constipation are generally the result of husbandry deficiencies. Not something that just happens. Theirs a reason for it. And often times a few things might be contributing to it, like its diet, or heat. Heat is a main reason. Often times when someone gecko isn’t eating or defecating, I tell them to check their temperature, maybe a bulb went out, or the UTH stopped working or got unplugged. Maybe the bulb got further away from the surface causing a lower temperature. Or the thermostat got bumped. Even the house temp may have dropped. So the temperature is lower then it should be. A lot of other times it’s a direct result or indication that theirs a problem with it’s diet. Either a lack of a mineral or vitamin is generally the reason. Another common area is, parasites, or ill animal. This is generally caused from a low immune system to begin with, which is generally diet related, or stress related. Generally they can balance out the parasites on their own unless their immune system falls.
Anyways, theirs a few reasons to cause impaction or constipation. Often times it’s a compounded problem where we might only see one thing that is wrong. But generally it’s the result of a few problems.
Anyway’s, this was just my two and a half cent’s worth.
Mario
www.GeckoNetwork.com
