There is a lot of online info about what substrate to put in your beardie tank and there are quite a few options: calcium based sand, crushed walnut shells, paper towels, newspapers, slate, etc. At the beginning of the year, my reptile vet (
Dr Scott Echols) told me to get single strand astroturf from Home Depot to use. BEST decision I ever made-- too bad he didn't tell me two weeks before when I spent over $40 buying sand for beardie tanks....
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Freshly changed astroturf-- look how clean!
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So here's what I do. I keep only 40 gallon tanks (36 inches long by 18 inches wide) and I have (or try to) TWO pieces of astroturf per tank. When the beardies poop, I grab a tissue, pick up the poop, and flush it. After a week, I take my stack of clean astroturf mats and swap out the old ones for the new ones. The new ones go outside where I sun-bleach them and hose them down. Once they drip dry (and get a second sun bleaching), I roll them up and stick them in my supplies box until next time.
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My dirty pieces before I hose them down
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When I adopt out a beardie with a tank, I always send two pieces of astroturf. My Home Depot sells two sizes of astroturf: 12 ft and 6 ft. I stick with the 6 ft. There are two choices in the 6 ft: one with a black, more flexible back and one with a white, hard back. I always buy the black back. If you want to be creative you can buy green astroturf, blue astroturf, or tan astroturf. I always stick with green (I'm boring that way).
On Monday I bought 3 pieces of 18 inch astroturf which will cut down to 6 pieces to use. It cost me $11.80 total with tax or just under $2 per tank. You can't buy any other substrate that cheaply!
I even use it in my tortoise tanks to make clean up easier. My next astroturf purchase will be a 48 inch piece that I cut into 4 pieces to use in my two 4 ft long tortoise tanks.
