Bark chippings

[sircactuscat]

So I walked into my local store and there was this woman and her daughter and they were looking at substrates, this older man comes along and gets bark chippings, presumably for his snake. The woman asks the stranger if you can put this in bearded dragon enclosures even though there was a bearded dragon in a viv next to her with play sand in. The man said 'I would of thought so.' I didn't want to interrupt but I thought bark chippings aren't good for them as they can mistake them for food. Correct me if I am wrong. Anyone else know?

 

[Germ]

You are correct

.

 

[sircactuscat]

I thought so, she was obviously someone who didn't do their research.

 

[Aleena]

Another victim of pet store idiocy.

 

[Kenny2605]

I have wood chippings in my tank, all the tanks in the pet shop who I deal with have all their beardie tanks filled with wood chippings my beardie would often snatch a piece when getting crickets but isnt long dropping them. Where as sand can get on their tongues when feeding on crickets, I've never had any problems with the wood chippings.

 

[Germ]

Then you may have been lucky so far that it has not ingested any amount of it just for the sake of eating it, if not accidentally. There is a big difference between few tiny grains of sand that will pass right through a well hydrated BD & a piece of wood. Pet Stores are notorious for improper substrate, care & advice.

 

[Toasty]

Wood chips are also going to raise the humidity levels in the tank, this is why they are popular for species that need more humidity. Also, many types of wood chips produce phenols that can be quite toxic to small animals. I would definitely not use them in a beardie tank.