The Real Problem w/ Sand?

[PhoenixRisen]

I have been looking around the Internet (surfing the web if you will) and cannot find any real reason not to use sand.
I have been keeping T's for...almost four years now and have not had any problems with sand. It is, if I remember right, ZooMed Repti Sand. I have my adult G. rosea in a 10 gallon with 2 bags of the red-colored sand and 2 bags of the white. My new slings are on the same mixture in their odds-and-ends containers.
G. rosea just seem to POP on that light copper sandy substrate.

 

[joshuai]

ive seen it caked around the mouth after eating. sand su@#$. IMO

 

[Sathane]

Aside from it getting stuck in the sucking mouth parts as already mentioned, there are a few other issues.
Sand doesn't hold moisture well. This won't be a huge issue with a G. Rosea but it will be with many other species.
Sand is not good for burrowing species. Again, not a huge issue with G. Rosea unless it tries to burrow.

I haven't read about this happening anywhere but, in theory, it could happen. If sand gets into certain places, like the epigastric furrow, for instance - this could cause irritation that the organisms body will try to fight as a foreign object. Again, not sure if this applies to Ts but I would suspect it would. When foreign objects get stuck under a mammal's skin, the body creates a 'capsule' to isolate the foreign object and force it out. Most other animals do something similar in one form or another.
I think that some of these 'growths' that people are finding on their Ts are caused by something similar.

 

[gumby]

From what I understood one of the big issues was sand getting into the book lings and clogging things up. Please correct me if im wrong. I had sand when I very first stared keeping Ts and my G. rosea would always have sand stuck all over the underside of her abdomen.

 

[RoachGirlRen]

If you run a forum search, there are a few very lengthy topics on sand, the possible risks, the myths and realities of its dangers, etc. One thing that does come up is that very few if any tarantulas live in a pure sand environment, and said environment is rarely the harsh silica sand or caking deadly calci-sand/bone-aid we have in captivity. The substrate poses problems for proper burrowing behavior and does not hold humidity very well. I suppose for a largely surface-dwelling dry lover like a rosea, it's not as bad as it would be for other species. But even among dry-loving species, it's generally a poor choice as a primary substrate. Most folks who use it at all use it mixed with soil/coconut fiber.

 

[equuskat]

From what I understood one of the big issues was sand getting into the book lings and clogging things up. Please correct me if im wrong. I had sand when I very first stared keeping Ts and my G. rosea would always have sand stuck all over the underside of her abdomen.

The book lungs "breathe" passively. They don't inhale, so sand can't really screw up that system.

I have, though, seen sand caked HARD around the mouth of a G. rosea. It was really more like cement! The owner was shocked when I picked her T up and she saw that mess. She uses peat now.

Sand is also a bit abrasive and may (though I can't back this up personally) cause an ulcerated abdomen on species that are prone to it, such as B. albopilosum.

 

[gvfarns]

Problems with sand:

1. Heavy
2. Scratches enclosures
3. T's can't burrow very well in it (for those who have burrowing T's)

Having said that, it has been used by a lot of people, especially in the past. Better than just sand is soil from your yard that you have sterilized. It has a little more cohesiveness to it.

But yea, sand is not deadly or anything. It's just not as nice as some other substrates in most people's opinion.

 

[Miss Bianca]

aside from its inability to hold moisture effectively,
definitely too abrasive as a permanent all-the-time-on-it substrate.
Plus there are so many more alternatives without nearly as many
downsides, why use sand?

 

[LeilaNami]

The book lungs "breathe" passively. They don't inhale, so sand can't really screw up that system.

I have, though, seen sand caked HARD around the mouth of a G. rosea. It was really more like cement! The owner was shocked when I picked her T up and she saw that mess. She uses peat now.

Sand is also a bit abrasive and may (though I can't back this up personally) cause an ulcerated abdomen on species that are prone to it, such as B. albopilosum.

Does it really have to inhale to be able to screw up the respiratory system? I believe it is the same with all other parts of the T. It gets into tissues and is abrasive so can even mess with the book lungs and their ability to function. Sand can get anaerobic spots when packed tightly which I believe will once again effect the respiratory system.

 

[gumby]

The book lungs "breathe" passively. They don't inhale, so sand can't really screw up that system.

Yup knew that. I was referring to sand clogging the book lungs not through inhalation but by contact. I was thinking it would just become stuck through contact over time as damp sand or dry sand I noticed that it would stick to my G. roseas abdomen. So my worry is that it would accumulate in the book lungs.

 

[equuskat]

I don't really see how sand could get "up into" the book lungs. I've drawn a lot of diagrams of book lungs in my time, and sand would have to literally be shoved up a very small slit and collect pretty heavily in there. Wet sand isn't dusty so, it would only stick to your spider and it would be very weird for it to "migrate" upward into the book lungs. I really don't think it could ever be a problem or we would have seen this already. The opening of the book lungs is rear facing, so the tarantula would essentially have to "bulldoze backwards" extensively, and even still I think it's pretty impossible.

Don't you think caking around the mouth like cement is enough of a concern?

 

[equuskat]

Sand can get anaerobic spots when packed tightly which I believe will once again effect the respiratory system.

Whaaat? If they can't burrow in sand, how could this possibly be a problem? There are not "anaerobic spots" of sand at the surface, and if the tarantula burrowed down, then there would obviously be oxygen there.

I'm not arguing FOR sand. I just think that we should use actual, logical conclusions in arguments AGAINST sand...and clogging the book lungs isn't really very viable. Tarantulas can live in dusty environments in the wild.

 

[PhoenixRisen]

Thanks

I guess sand just seems to be very aesthetically pleasing to me. Thank you for the feed back. Next time I'm at Petsmart, I'll pick some up or order some other sub from Adam.
Would it be alright to mix half-and-half with say...Coco fiber? I don't want to just throw out 4 bags of perfectly good sand.

 

[Moltar]

If you want to use sand at all, even mixed in with other substrate make sure to use "desert sand" like you'll find in the gardening section. This will be more coarse and not full of finely ground silica dust. That decorative hobby sand is ground very fine and that's where you get the problems like caking around the mouth and all that other stuff. This fine silica is not something you'll find in nature, it's been blown away by the wind and isn't going to be in the soil in any great concentrations.

Sorry Pheonix but if that sand you have is of the decorative hobby variety I really don't think it should go in your spider tank in any quantity.

 

[peachypaderna]

Hey, Phoenix! I'd have to agree with etown. As much as your G. rosea contrasts nicely against that copper-colored sand, the primary concern here is the welfare of your T, not his/her aesthetic value within the enclosure scheme.

If the sand you have right now is the decorative sort that causes problems, then it hardly is "perfectly good sand" for your purposes. Put simply: if it's no good for your spider, it never is worth it.

 

[GoTerps]

I have been looking around the Internet (surfing the web if you will) and cannot find any real reason not to use sand.

Then go for it! I just haven't got the itch to mess with it, but I certainly would.

Seems to work good for Eddy... CLICK HERE.

Good luck.

Eric

 

[RoachGirlRen]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that to be excavator clay, which holds form/compacts for burrowing much better than most commercially available loose sand products?

 

[Heatherbear]

we have the rept-sand in our t-cage,we've only had her a week,would it stress to change out substrates now? We've never kept a tarantula before,so I'm super-scared something will go wrong with her. The pet store was using that sand,so that's why we bought it. We orginally were going to use bed-a-beast,but I added too much water to it and it got way to wet.

 

[burmish101]

Well Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (sp?) come from the beach in Venezuela so using sand with those should work ideally, im not sure about other species, but G. rosea might be on abrasive substrate in the wild, they are from a pretty arid place.

 

[tarcan]

Lasiodora trinitatis burrow, Trinidad island