Oops. I done a bad thing. And learned that "silly goose" is considered insulting. Curious. Sorry about that, Susan!
My apologies, Chip, and excellent point--some lizards DO do well in sand. After all, there's a reason Sandfish skinks are called "Sand Fish"!
I have a bad habit of forgetting about those and honing in on things like beardies & leos that don't really need a burrowing substrate. Bad habit I've been meaning to break.
To be specific, I'm very skeptical about
"reptile" and calcium sands being safe for anything. I do recognize that some species seem to do best on sand (i.e. sandfish) and that some people do have success keeping healthy, well-hydrated, and properly fed/supplemented beardies and leos on sand.
My Schneider's skink is supposed to be one of those species that do well on sand, though I'm still so accustomed to the stigma and arguments against sand in regard to beardies that I haven't had the guts to try it. Been thinking about trying a drier dirt mix, though... Nice and easily burrowed, with less impaction worries. I just love dirt mixes for those animals I do use them for (tortoise and a couple snakes)! Granted, those are all medium to high humidity species, so an arid dirt mix is new territory for me. Really need to get around to doing that--been wanting to do an arid planted viv for a Rosy boa, too!