Zilla Desert Blend Substrate, Glass-Friendly Alternative to Sand, Made with 100% English Walnut Shells, Ideal for Desert Reptiles, 10 Quarts

Excellent product
I bought this as a cheaper replacement for sand, and it’s a wonderful product. In fact, for my purposes, it works out much better than sand. I could buy sand at a home improvement shop and get much more for less money, but I just don’t need 50 pounds of sand, especially considering that sand probably would be damp, need drying out before use, be too large to keep in my home, and when dry, it would probably produce considerable dust as well. This product, intended for use with small reptilian pets, is already clean, dry and dust free, so that’s a major plus over a large quantity of sand. The amount of product is perfect as well — any hobbyist (I bought mine to use as ‘earth’ on bases for wargaming miniatures and other diorama and terrain projects) can keep this amount near their work area (unlike a 50+ pound bag of sand), and unless I’m mistaken, it’s the same thing some companies sell as ‘railroad ballast,’ although this was cheaper by far. It’s sold as five dry quarts and I’d guess its weight at about ten pounds, and it comes in a plastic bag about 1 foot tall, 7 inches wide and 4 or 5 inches thick (depending on how it’s settled). It’s pretty much an exact match for the Woodland Scenics medium ballast product (maybe right in between their fine and medium sizes), but the WS 32oz shaker jars at Amazon sell for ablout twice the price of this, and this bag contains as much product as four or five of those. Five times as much for half the price, and the same thing to boot? I am definitely a happy customer! I’m sure it’s perfect for our little wriggling and burrowing pets too, since that’s its intended purpose, but it’s also perfect for my hobbying. After all, it’s the same thing I’ve used for years with great success, and I couldn’t be happier to get so much at such a great price (six bucks and change, which is about the same as the price as the quite small bags of brown ballast from WS, much less the large shaker bottles). For wargaming hobbyists needing something like sand for basing miniatures, this is a huge bargain. This one bag probably would cover an entire 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood (the size of the wargaming tabletops on which I enter battle) with considerable leftovers, or if used just for bases, almost certainly last me the rest of my hobbying life. 😉 As is the case with the normal brown ballast from WS, white glue and acrylic paints (as well as washes from Vallejo, Citadel and Army Painter) work great, although some may like the color exactly as is. I’m really glad to have discovered this, and I highly recommend it for tabletop wargaming and military miniatures hobbyists.

Less expensive than Petco shipped for free. I use it to clean brass in my brass tumbler
So the price is great. Less expensive than the local Petco. I don’t have a lizard. I use it as media to tumble once fired brass from the range. It cleans faster and better than corn cob media. It cleans the inside of cases where the corn cob doesn’t seem to. It does create more dust than the corn cob. (not a big thing though)I do still use the corn cob media however to polish the brass since this walnut cleans but doesn’t polish as well as the corn cob media. I can use this first then later the corn cob media with brass polish added. I’ve even mixed the two which works well and saves a step. Don’t deprime the cases beforehand, just leave them in and tumble first.I can use this stuff over and over again. The best thing is that I don’t wear out the corn cob media very fast at all since most of the tumbling is done with walnut. Just my experience. I found this tip on some reloading sites. This brand specifically was mentioned along with a few others.

My leopard gecko loves this
I use about half a bag for a 20g long tank. I was concerned that walnut shells would be too rough and hurt my leopard gecko’s belly, but the grains aren’t cut sharp and it’s actually quite soft. My leopard gecko loves to lie in this stuff. Before when he was on aspen, he slept mostly in his cave, but since I’ve started using this stuff he sleeps out in the open more often than in the cave. He also loves digging in it. He makes an absolute mess.As with all loose substrate, I don’t feed him on it directly to avoid impaction. I put his worms and roaches in a shallow dish, and feed him crickets mostly by hand. Occasionally he gets some in his mouth, but I keep an eye on him and he poops it right out. You have to make sure your lizard is getting enough water and heat, otherwise they can even become impacted from too many mealworms. Don’t put unhealthy or juvenile lizards on loose substrate. My other leopard gecko, who can’t see very well and always misses at least two times before she manages to get a worm in her mouth, is on reptile carpet, otherwise she’d be eating more substrate than her actual food.I feel that this is much better than aspen, because the grains are much smaller and can’t hurt their insides if they ingest it.The only problem I have with this is that my leopard gecko kicks it into his water bowl and it stains it red. Other than that, this substrate is great.

This is the best bedding I ever used for my reptiles I 1000000% percent recommend this product.

Nice size pieces, easy to paint, picks up colour well. Cost efficient and no dust, evenly ground. Will work very well for building scenery. A good choice for track ballast. I would recommend this for hobbyists. Nice material to work with.