Topsoil + Playsand too dry?

[derrick0312]

Hi all, I just had my first ever Hermann yesterday (8 months old) and name is Sushi!!

Sushi has been running around the table a lot, doing a lot of exercise. Ate some italian salad mix leaves and drank a lot of water. she also poo-ed while I bath her this morning. the temperature is around 32-34C at the hot end and low 20C at the cold end.

One thing that worries me though, is that I found her rubbing her eyes a lot with her limbs...I had 50/50 mix of topsoil and playsand as the bedding and I think it's quite very dry especially at the hot end...therefore maybe too dusty and thus irritate her eyes? Whenever she's in water bowl, we rubbed her eyes more and this makes me wonder if she is cleaning her eye from dusts? There's no swollen eye or nose discharge or bubble from mouth.

I have since changed the substrate to contain more topsoil less sand (maybe around 70/30 or even 80/20), and it seems sushi enjoys it more with no more rubbing and she's wondering around very actively. She even dug a hole and is now sleeping in it.

So here's my question - is sushi showing symptoms of respiratory illness? Is it okay for me to use a different soil/sand ratio than 50/50? what's the purpose of having sand? Is it to regulate the humidity of the enclosure?