I was asked a question recently on one of our YouTube videos that really got me thinking about they way we keep our reptiles. It was a question about the best substrate to use with Bearded Dragons. I don’t want to open this debate again, but my personal preference is for beech woodchip. I was told by a hobbyist, that I was wrong because woodchip is not a natural substrate. My response, so what?
There’s a common perception that we should do everything we can to make our vivariums as natural as possible, in order to keep our reptiles happy. Is this true?
If you think that recreating a natural environment is the best way to keep your reptile happy, I have listed a few things below that you’ll need to consider. And we’ll see whether our pets would fair better in our homes, or in the wild.
| Environmental Factor | Natural Best? | Artificial Best? |
| Temperature: | X | ✔ |
| Reptiles have evolved to suit their natural environment’s temperature, but at home we can keep the temperature stable and optimum. We can avoid the adverse weather affects and temperature swings wild reptiles are forced to deal with. | ||
| UVB: | ✔ | X |
| Home UVB lighting has improved significantly over the past few years, but they do degrade over time and need replacing on a regular basis. After 6 months a fluorescent tube is producing very little effective UVB. | ||
| Substrate: | X | ✔ |
| Whatever reptile you have the artificial substrate you use will be safer than any natural flooring. It’s cleaner, parasite free and less likely to be swallowed. If it is swallowed, it will be non toxic and more likely to be passed. Some are even digestable. | ||
| Food: | X | ✔ |
| Wild reptiles can’t afford to be fussy, as food in the wild is often scarce.Good or bad, in it goes!. Our pet reptiles get fresh veg from the supermarket, clean gut-loaded insects and nutritionally balanced supplements. | ||
| Water: | X | ✔ |
| As much as we complain about our tapwater, it’s clean, fresh and free from parasites and pathogenic bacteria. It’s also always available. Whilst reptiles are expert water conservers, our pets do not need to employ physiologically expensive strategies. | ||
| Predators: | X | ✔ |
| ALL reptiles kept as pets are subject to predation at some point during their life cycle. Nobody in their right mind is going to subject their pet to predation, that would just be silly. | ||
| Breeding: | ✔ | X |
| Artificial selection of our pet reptiles has brought us amazing variety in many species. Just look at how many corn snake morphs we have, they’re all the same species! However, natural selection is the driving force behind the variety of species! Win. | ||
| Parasites: | X | ✔ |
| Who’s deliberately adding parasites to their vivarium? Why not? They are natural! | ||
| Space: | ✔ | X |
| Let’s be honest, our reptiles at home do live in a confined environment. In the wild, their environments may also confined by terriatorial boundaries. But, they will always naturally have more space to roam in nature. |
These all contribute to captive reptiles having;
- longer life span.
- increased survival rate.
I’m not arguing that reptiles should be removed from the wild, I personally think they should be left there where possible. In fact, Northampton Reptile Centre only sell captive bred reptiles. I’m just trying to make a light-hearted point that just because something occurs in nature, it is not necessarily the best thing for our pets.
These are, of course, just my opinions. I’m sure some of you may disagree with some of the points above. That’s great, without debate our hobby will never advance. Which is what we all want as a community. Please use the comments section below to add your views.
Gary agree with your comments, but still not a great believer in the beech wood chip. We use sand for our beardie as he doesn’t lose his food in the substrate and it would appear that he’s uncomfortable on the wood chips and definitely a lot happier it would seem with sand, hence the reason for changing back to sand. You should use what ever good brand of substrate you and your reptile are comfortable with, which will probably depend on what they were originally reared on.
Completely agree, we’re here to offer advise but people should always do their own research too and, like you say, use whatever they are most comfortable with.