Reptile carpet Vs. Aspen

[Hull357]

I have herd many differnt comparissions between reptile carpet and aspen and im not quite sure which one is better? i assume if you were to have both in the tank it would cut down the heat from the UTH drasticly. any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[ogdentrece]

You don't need both. They both are decent substrates on their own. Its just that in my opinion reptile carpet is really a hassle. Everytime the snake makes any kind of a mess, you have to take everything (cage furniture) out to take the reptile carpet out, put a new one in and put everything back in. So you'd need to have 2.

Assuming that is alright, it still poses a problem with cleaning, because you have to scrub the dried up bits that usually get stuck onto it and in the fibres out of it, wash and disinfect, making sure no residual disinfectant is left unless its reptile friendly. Then you use it for the next round. A few problems with rewashing, besides the hassle of washing. First it sounds pretty unclean and unhygenic to me, another is that people have said that it retains the bad smell. Doesnt entirely work for me. I'm not sure about the heat conductivity of the carpets though.

Aspen is great for spot cleaning, but could be messier - a few bits of aspen shavings all over your floor everytime you take anything out of the enclosure, but easily dealt with with a broom or vacuum. Spot cleaning is easy, replacing the entire bedding once every couple of months keeps it extremely clean. You can change the thickness of the bedding layer as well to suit your needs for heating (but you still need a thermostat whatever the case, but sometimes if your air is cold it may not get through more than half an inch of bedding). But sometimes your snake could mess it up too.

[Hull357]

that was a great help i will stick with the aspen that i have in the tank then. do you recomend playing around with the depth of it to insure the right temp is reached on the hot and cool side?

[Alexandra V]

that was a great help i will stick with the aspen that i have in the tank then. do you recomend playing around with the depth of it to insure the right temp is reached on the hot and cool side?

Substrate thickness won't make a difference in controlling the temperature of the heat mat, because the snake will just move it all out of the way and sit on the glass anyways. Your best bet to ensure you get the right temperatures is to get a thermostat or rheostat and attach it to the heat mat (because all heat mats get FAR too hot for a ball python), and if the room is too cool then invest in a little space heater that you can get for dirt cheap to keep the temperature between 78-80 F.

[gardenfiend138]

Definitely be wary of piling on the substrate over your UTH loosely, because if you're reading 90 on top of 1" of substrate your UTH is probably set to around 100 or 105, and if the substrate is loose, then your snake could manipulate it and get too hot.
If you compact it though, or use a mixture of substrates so it all settles, then your snake won't be able to get down to the hotter parts.
I struggled with trying to maintain proper temperatures with thick substrate on the hot side--now I use less than half an inch, so there is always some part of the bottom of the enclosure exposed to ensure I get an accurate temperature reading. Then you can pile the substrate as high as you want on the cool side and it still gives them a semi-varied terrain. Sorry for the long ramble.

[Skittles1101]

+1 to everyone about the substrate. A thermostat is the safest way to regulate a UTH...not piling on substrate. Mine all bury under their substrate and lay directly on the glass. I suggest aspen over the carpet. I've never used it but I've heard after being washed a few times it gets kind of gross...not worth the money IMO. Aspen is easy to spot clean and easy to spot messes, holds temps well (I only use about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of aspen).

[ogdentrece]

What I meant about being able to play around with the thickness is that, with reptile carpet, if you have cold climates it is possible that not enough heat gets through it. I don't get enough heat with an inch of aspen, so I'm thinking reptile carpets which are rather thick and does trap air in the turf things would not be much better. I'm NOT saying that you should use the aspen substrate to control how much heat is getting to your ball python on a heating system that is not regulated.

[Hull357]

Thanks for the great advice everyone im deff going to stick with the aspen after all of this information. i kinda always thought the carpet would be a bad idea with the clean up and keeping sanitary but i wanted to make sure i wasnt thinking too much into it.