Exo Terra Desert Sand - Red

A desert-dwelling reptile spends a lot of its life digging, and the substrate underneath it needs to hold a burrow's shape without turning to dust, which is really what separates a proper desert sand from playground sand.

This is natural sand with no added dyes or chemicals, sourced from Australian deserts, the Namib and Kalahari in Africa, Madagascar's Spiny Desert and North America's Sonoran Desert, then sifted to remove impurities and give a homogenous grain size. The rounded quartz grains are designed to reduce impaction risk compared with coarser sand types if any is accidentally swallowed, and it conducts heat effectively, making it compatible with substrate heaters like heat mats. It works both as a general desert terrarium substrate and as an egg-laying medium for animals that dig.

• Natural sand, no added dyes or chemicals
• Sourced from Australian, Namib, Kalahari, Madagascan and Sonoran deserts
• Sifted for a homogenous, rounded grain
• Reduces impaction risk compared with coarser sands
• Conducts heat well, compatible with heat mats
• 4.5KG bag

One thing worth knowing. Rounded grains reduce impaction risk compared with coarser sand — they don't remove it. Any loose substrate carries some risk if an animal ingests enough of it, so it's still worth monitoring feeding habits on a sand substrate rather than assuming "reduces" means "eliminates."

Who it's for: keepers of desert reptiles that dig or burrow, or that need an egg-laying substrate, who want a natural, undyed sand that also works well with substrate heating.