# Buying slate tiles for vivarium/terrarium



## DaisyBoo1987

Hi guys I am changing Luna's (my leopard gecko) substrate from paper towels to slate tiles (ive heard there good and I WILL NOT EVER run the risk of her getting impacted) but I have no idea where to get it from I have tried shopping online and B and q but its all quite small tiles or rediculous money.

Is any tile safe or just slate?

Her terrarium is 90x45x45 cm and wondered if you able to get like a sheet of the stuff just cut to size. Im pulling my hair out trying to find something suitable, so please help Luna and my balding head lol!

Much love guys!
ps Im new here!


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## Feadern

Hello!
First, welcome to the forums!


Second - I want to do the same for my bearded dragon, i've been looking into it and slate tiles are a pain to come across! They are find-able, just not straight forward lol...

Search "Roofing Slate Tiles" thats probably what you want  Large, Wide but thin slate pieces...

I think you can get them quite large too so maybe cover a base in 3-4 of them?


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## GemmaPerks

I've used 60cmx40cm slate floor tiles (they are very think about 10-12mm)

cut them using a tile elec tile cutter, slowly with loads of water

they are £6 each from most tile shops. fill any gaps with grout


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## DaveG1973

i bought mine from BandQ. They often have damaged packs with one broken/missing tile.
I needed to cover a 4x2 viv which i managed to do by buying 2 packs of damaged slate tiles... they are not an exact match and you probably wouldnt do you kitchen with them but for £11 for 9 300mmx300mm tiles you cant go wrong.
Hopefully will go someway to sorting out Kenneth the beardies sharp claws over some time. He was kept substrate free before i got him last week....

The slate is easy to spot clean and looks good.. i just need to get some play sand to fill in the gaps between the tiles..


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## Ratmandocymru

i was cheeky and went into wickes and asked if they had any broken slate tiles icould have and managed to get enough for 2 vivs for free : victory:


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## antcherry88

Wickes sell slate tiles 30cm2 for £2 each. I bought some last week for my bearded dragon. Don't bother cutting/sticking them down/grouting just lay them in the viv and let them overlap. That way they're easy to remove and clean.


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## Hudson

*Heat transfer*

How do you find the 10 - 12mm of slate / tile for heat transfer?

Also in a wooden Viv, is it acceptable to not stick the tiles together?

Thanks


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## Rabb

My dad and uncle are roofers so I got them to get me roofing slate. You should be able to get it form any builder merchant. Look for new rather then used and be sure to wash of any loose chips. I used it as a background on one of my vivs and it cut the heating cost a fair bit because it holds the heat.


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## my_shed

You don't need to limit yourself to slate tiles, just so you know you can use pretty much any form of commercially available tiles, just give them a scrub or bake for a while. I kept a couple of BD's on some terracotta floor tiles for years 

Dave


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## Kiel

I was looking for slate tiles for the longest time for my beardie viv until I came across some in my uncle's 'shed of all things random' (come on, everyone knows someone with one of those).

12 20x10" tiles covered the 3x5' floorspace comfortably.


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## Kiel

For some reason I can't edit my post, so here's what mine looks like with the flat roof tiles:


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