Substrates

[DarrinLowe]

Hey,

I was looking for a good substrate for ball pythons. I've read alot of threads and it seems very controversial, so I wanted to know in just a general thread your guys experiences and opinions on certain substrates are.

My main desire is one that holds humidity a little better than aspen.

I am using repti-carpet with one, and aspen with the other.

I talked to a girl I am working with, who was in the pet industry for 16ish years, and she recommended "fake moss", but couldnt find a brand or product name that is fake moss haha.

So I am curious what you guys use, and how you find it holding humidity.
I understand taht the ambient conditions around the cages make a huge difference. Im in dry conditions. My young male's 10 gallon before I covered 3/4 with tin foil was 10% humidity. Now its up at 40%. Thankfully he is a soaker, so he had a successful complete shed. (or so I think.. all of his body shed was stuck together in a ball, and I found half of his face incl. 1 eye cap in his water dish, I dont know if the other half came off cause he was on his 2 day feed break) Checking tonight.

[Kaorte]

I would look into cypress mulch. I know you can sometimes find it in pet stores.

I personally prefer paper towel. I can easily spot messes and it keeps everything nice and clean. Then again, I use tubs so I don't have a problem with humidity.

[snakesRus]

i personally use cypress mulch i get from home depot. helps big time with shedding.and some of my others i use unprinted newspaper sheets i get in a bulk order. but all of my snakes are in racks and because of winter and som dry hard to keep humidity. so i use a humidifier to help. hope this helps

[yeroc1982]

Iv been using news paper is it's great!! Free and no shortage!

[Akren_905]

how about plantation soil? ive been using that and im thinking of changing over to paper towels because i cant see there pee to clean it up and where they have peed to clean because it soaks in. It seems to be good for the mosture tho.

[jamesa2580]

Reptibark is great at holding humidity. It's so good, in fact, that I had to switch to aspen because the reptibark was causing condensation buildup in my tubs.

It costs about the same as aspen and can be found in most commercial pet stores.

Good luck!

[DarrinLowe]

I'm having trouble finding cypress mulch at homedepot or anything. Any Canadians find some?

[MitsuMike]

Reptibark if you only have 2 snakes. @ 20 bucks a bag it's quite expensive to use it on big cages. I could go thru a bag of reptibark in my 7 level 41 qt rack.
If you have more tubs or cages go with cypress mulch found at home depot or lowes, it comes in a yellow bag.

[BallsUnlimited]

packing paper cut to size. cheap easy to clean and havent had a problem holding humidity or anything.

[DarrinLowe]

Yeah, cypress mulch is out of the question atm.

I've called virtually every garden center in Calgary. Nobody has even heard of it. Prob because, as someone said it comes from Florida. Most Canadian stuff comes from british columbia.

I may try repti bark, or coco husk. Its just weird, I've heard alot of controversy over coco.. I'm not sure why.