Soloution to gravel woes

[coffo]

well this is what a guy from the pet shop says

hand feeding
he says hes been keeping axies for 20 years and hes never had any serious problems with gravel and that he hand feeds

i belived him he seemed like a very honest person
but i shall be soon putting this too the test
(axies are hillarous when hand fed he started eating the guys finger)

(Message edited by coffo on March 11, 2006)

 

[charlie]

They are easy to hand feed, and its one of the joys of owning axies. But it won't stop them gobbling the odd bit of gravel by accident. Axies have a habit of gulping it.
Sand looks better in most situations, and works so much better, and its only more hassle when you're setting it up. Easier to clean up after your axies on as well.
They can be ok on gravel, no doubt. But you KNOW they will be better on sand, and it makes your life easier and your axie easier to keep happy.

 

[jennifer]

He hasn't had problems with gravel, precisely because he hand-feeds. Most people don't have the patience to hand-feed 100% of the time, that's why the general recommendation is "don't use gravel". If you are committed to hand-feeding and clean up EVERY piece of dropped food, gravel will probably be OK.

 

[sharn]

i think they would occasionally eat the odd piece of gravel, just probably not enough to make lumps and bumps, my axies will have the odd snap at food 2 days after feeding, even though i clean up large chunks and the snail eats most of the leftovers, guess its hard to get every single little bit for me lol. it definatly makes that rish so much smaller though

 

[sharn]

i think they might occasionally eat the odd piece of gravel, just probably not enough to make lumps and bumps, my axies will have the odd snap at food 2 days after feeding, even though i clean up large chunks and the snail eats most of the leftovers, guess its hard to get every single little bit for me lol. it definatly makes that rish so much smaller though

 

[sharn]

i think they might occasionally eat the odd piece of gravel, just probably not enough to make lumps and bumps, my axies will have the odd snap at food 2 days after feeding, even though i clean up large chunks and the snail eats most of the leftovers, guess its hard to get every single little bit for me lol. it definatly makes that risk so much smaller though

 

[rob]

must be a thing with petshop owners and twenty yrs looking after them cause iv'e had two different petshop owners telling me theyve had axies for 20 yrs and no probs, but do remember they usually dont have them long b4 they sell them and pass the problems onto someone else, iv'e seen my axies snap at the sand when nothings there to eat "or that i can see anyway" my last axie pooped out about 20 odd rocks

 

[coffo]

wow
ill give gravel a go still but ill change if problems start
i dont know about you people but i like the look of gravel all the different coloured stones and so forth

 

[jennifer]

coffo - one really nice-looking alternative is to use a neutral colored fine sand and intersperse larger pebbles (too large to eat) over it. The larger rocks break up the monotony of the beige sand without risking ingestion. And if you later decide to change the "color scheme" of the tank, you just change the larger rocks and keep the sand.

(Message edited by jennewt on March 12, 2006)

 

[coffo]

seems like a cool idea
but at the mo i simply dont have the money just spent all my money on a tank might give it a go in the long run but ill give gravil a go first

 

[jojo]

If you havent bought the gravel already.. sand is cheaper then gravel LOL

Pet shops charge abit for small bags of gravel..

Just my 2 cents if u wanna save some money WHILST still having pets

(Message edited by jojo_is_here on March 12, 2006)

 

[cheryl]

we got a good 60kg of sand for $6

 

[coffo]

nah i already bought it and in my pet shop they were both the same

 

[jojo]

re the sand though, its best not to buy it from the petshop anyway (unless of course its the only sand that can be found around where you live). They are very pricey. Alot of us here, got our sand from a home improvement place or a pool shop.

 

[sharn]

also it might be lakes fish sand etc, is it very light? if it is it would contain alot of shells which can harden your water, good thing if your waters below 7 or so though.

 

[emily]

Just my personal experience here, I always hand feed my axie. When i first got him i never knew about the gravel being bad for them. I have had him for over a year and one day he was sick (not from gravel) so I put him in the fridge. The next day there was heaps and heaps of gravel in the dish i had him in in the fridge. So even though you will hand feed like me, they are still not smart enough to avoid eating it.

 

[beech]

What is the best sand to use?
Silver sand for kiddies sandpits?
I was going to buy black polymer-coated sand, because I like the colour - but it's about £3.50 for 1/2 a litre.

 

[jojo]

Everyone has there own opinions re which sand is best, from what ive gathered

There are a number of differnt types of sand that ppl over the boards use..
Play sand, washed river sand, pool filter sand.....

Theres also some that have black sand, purple sand - depends on what look ur going for.

 

[jojo]

If you do a search or read through the boards, you'll find heaps of threads discussing the different sand types that are used and feedback..

Good luck

 

[genevieve]

Hey I know this has been discussed to death already, but I want to put in my 2 cents that I hand feed my axie (always have) and he still ate gravel... until I switched to sand and he's been so much happier with it (and less bloated)