Gecko substrate help

What substrate is best for a full grown Leopard gecko?

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This can really depend on the individual gecko and how you feed them. Some geckos will just eat substrate randomly. Some will get mouthfuls while hunting. Some are fine.

Regardless of what substrate you have, I always recommend leaving a little dish of calcium and one of vitamins so they can go lick at it if they feel like they need it. It can help reduce the risk of them ingesting anything.

I wouldn’t recommend reptisand or calcisand. Reptisand is super fine and can stain their skin, Calcisand is sometimes ingested if they feel like they need more calcium and can cause impactions.

What I’ve used for cage bottoms in the past and have not had issues with are:
-paper towels
-tile
-eco earth /coconut fiber / reptidirt
-a light dusting of sand, but between larger flat slate rocks so it’s hard to eat big gulps

I’ve heard of some mixes of playsand and reptidirt kind of material for bioactive habitats, but you really have to be careful because higher humidity isn’t good for these guys and dry bioactives can be tough for beginners.
If you’re not sure if your gecko is doing okay on the substrate, monitor the poops. If they’re eating a lot of substrate, the poop will have a lot of it inside or just look like a weird pile of urates and substrate. Otherwise the poop will have bug bits inside and look normal.

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