Reptilite calcium substrate?

[Seffers93]

Hey guys,
I have a jacksons chameleon, and I just got the little guy a new cage.
I looked for soil at walmart, but when I asked them for non-fertilized soil, they acted like they didn't know what was going on.
So... I went to my local pet shop, and they advised me to use this Reptilite calcium substrate. It looks just like a very fine sand. It's very soft.
Would this be okay to use for now?

 

[AngieL]

Hi! No substrate is the best substrate. Calci sand is more for geckos and even then it's not good for them. Some people here use substrate successfully but unless you have an egg laying female, you're better off just lining the floor with paper towels. If you must use substrate to help with humidity then Eco earth would be good because reptiles can ingest and pass it easily.

 

[Carlton]

That pet shop has no clue about chams, they wanted to sell you something. Calci sand won't do anything for an arboreal cham and might cause problems. What type of floor does your new cage have? You can cover it with towels as suggested or you might not need anything at all. Depending on what the floor is or what the cage sits on that might be damaged by water, there is nothing wrong with it getting wet daily as long as you do disinfect/clean it regularly. You don't want pools of standing water that never evaporate, but drips, splattering, isn't bad.

 

[Seffers93]

That's what I was thinking.. they probably just wanted to sell something.
The cage I bought is an all screen cage. It's 24 x 24 x48.
I'm not sure exactly what the floor is. It's just like a white sheet that's laid down. Not as strong as wood, but not as weak as cardboard.
The plan is to get a potted plant, but I figured the cham might go to the bottom every now and then, so I thought I might need some kind of bedding.
If I used a towel, would it be bad if it got damp?
Or would I need to lay a towel down and put some kind of bedding on top?

 

[Olimpia]

I wouldn't use paper towel personally, it just gets wet, messy, and it's a waste of paper. If you don't want to just leave it bare, maybe for aesthetic reasons, you can find a cabinet liner in a pattern/color that you like. Then just cut it to size, and out of a roll you can have several made, so when you clean the cage you just remove the one, replace it with a nice clean one, and the last one can get a good disinfection. It saves you money, easy to wipe, and durable. And they can come slightly textured, so you can have one that your chameleon won't slip and slide on if he's ever hunting on the ground (like my Jackson's did continuously).