The Right Substrate for Your Reptile: A Guide to Preventing Impaction

As reptile owners, we’re always watching for signs of impaction. This is one of the most serious issues that all reptiles might face, and can be deadly if left untreated. The good news is that it’s fully avoidable, if you take the right steps to make sure your scaly friend has the right substrate. 

In this article, we’ll talk about how to pick the right substrate for your pet to prevent impaction and keep them healthy. Let’s get into it. 

Why Does Impaction Happen? 

Basically, impaction is when your pet’s digestive tract is blocked, meaning it can’t process food. This might happen because of an excess of fiber in your pet’s diet, but it’s more likely caused by a foreign object. 

    Accidental Substrate Ingestion

The first reason your pet might become impacted is that it accidentally ate substrate while trying to eat its food. This happens more often than you’d think, especially if you’re not careful about the kind of substrate you put in your pet’s habitat.

    Geophagy

The second reason reptiles eat substrate is geophagy, or the instinctive drive to eat substrate caused by a nutrient deficiency. This is kind of like when deer lick a road surface to get salt. If your pet is low on calcium and notices that its substrate contains calcium, it might start eating it to try and get the missing nutrient it needs. This is much less common, but still worth thinking about when planning your habitat. 

Is Impaction Dangerous? 

Short answer: YES. The longer answer is that impaction is much more serious than constipation, which is how it usually manifests. Impaction means that your pet has completely blocked its intestines. 

Anything it eats at this point will get stuck and build up, which can cause internal hemorrhaging and death. On the other hand, if your pet stops eating (which is very likely), it might starve to death waiting to pass the blockage in its digestive system. 

Impaction is potentially deadly, and a major reason we keep such a close eye on our pets’ eating habits and poops. If you notice a loss of appetite combined with constipation and lethargy, it’s time for a call to the vet. 

Why Substrate Matters

Reptile habitats basically need three things. They need a clean container (like a glass vivarium). They need temperature regulation (hot and cool sides and hides). 

And they need substrate, which mimics your pet’s natural habitat, absorbs heat, and helps you keep the place clean by clumping up bodily fluids. 

Keeping your pet’s habitat clean is a daily activity, so that part should be obvious. But the psychological aspect of substrate can be easy to overlook. 

Basically, your substrate is going to help your pet feel like it’s in a wild environment, which is going to keep them stress-free. This is much more important for adult reptiles than juveniles, which are mostly concerned with eating. 

It’s also a huge help in regulating the temperature in the habitat. You need substrate to absorb heat and moisture, regulating the temperature inside the vivarium. 

Substrate No-Nos

The list of substrates to avoid is pretty short. If you’re worried about impaction, just make sure you avoid using woodchips, calcium sand or vita sand, and reptile carpets. 

Woodchips can cause huge problems if ingested by a reptile. They’re sharp and cause blockages easily, which makes them very dangerous if your reptile happens to eat some accidentally. 

Calcium sand, on the other hand, is a major culprit for geophagy. As we already mentioned, this is because your pet might try to eat it in order to get calcium, if it’s deficient.

Reptile carpets cause their own set of issues. Mainly, they’re hard to clean and can absorb bodily fluids, making it impossible to remove them from the habitat. They can also tear, which can lead to accidental ingestion.

The other major thing to avoid with substrate is any unwashed or unsanitized material. Sand and soil should always be sieved for foreign objects and baked before introducing it to your reptile’s environment. 

Best Substrates for Juvenile Reptiles

For juvenile reptiles, the key is to keep it simple. We make two big recommendations for juveniles, both of which are very simple and easy to clean. 

The first is ceramic tiling. Ceramic tiles are easy to clean and do a great job of absorbing heat. However, they’re not very inviting for your pet and don’t do a ton to resemble natural substrate. 

The second is good old fashioned paper towels. The benefit of paper towels is how cheap they are to replace, and how easy they make it to clean. While your pet’s still a baby, you can just swap them out daily to keep things in good order. 

Best Substrates for Adult Reptiles

Once your pet reaches adulthood, you might want to step your game up a bit and try using some natural substrates. These will create a much more stress-free environment for your pet and give them places to burrow, which many reptiles love to do. 

Our first recommendation is a mix of topsoil and play sand. Play sand gives the earth a nice structure and is calcium-free, which is a must. Make sure the soil you use doesn’t have any fertilizer or additives, which can be poisonous. 

To make your substrate, you’ll want to create a 70/30 mix of soil and sand. Then, you need to spread it on a baking sheet and bring it up to 180°F in the oven. 

Another option you can try is excavator clay. Excavator clay is a moldable material that can be shaped, either by you or your pet, and will hold its shape under a reasonable amount of force. So you could create burrows or tunnels for your pet to hang out in, and they wouldn’t collapse. If you ever want to change the layout, or let your pet do their thing, you can re-mold the material and it will hold its shape.