New hybrid substrate idea...

[cchardwick]

OK, so I started with aspen bedding and it was a mess, it didn't hold moisture, I was going through tons of it, and it was getting in the mouths of my ball pythons and some snakes were getting a lot of bedding stuck in their mouths when missing a rodent. Then I had a mite issue, so switched to paper towels. I love the paper towels, I can see the mites and see when the snakes make a mess, but the problem now is I can't keep the humidity up and my snakes are having major shed problems.

So I just picked up a block of Reptichip coconut substrate and boy does that stuff expand and hold the water! But it's pretty expensive, and I can't see the mites very good unless they are on my snake, and there's the heating issue - if the snake is on top of the substrate it's a completely different temp than if they burrow down into it, very difficult to maintain temps. And if the snake pees a lot, like my retic, I can't see it and the substrate just sucks it up and I don't realize it's soiled.

So I came up with a solution of using several layers of newspaper covered by paper towels in the back of the tub over the heat with Reptichip substrate around the front part of the tub. That way if the snake makes a mess I can simply change out the paper towels and newspaper, much cheaper and easier than changing out reptichip. And I can spray down the reptichip in the front to keep the humidity high. Not sure how it's going to work long term, I just set it up today. It's kind of the best of both worlds (if it works). I keep my snake room in the mid 70s and the hotspot about 88 F so most snake hang out in the back over the heat, which is where I want them to be!

[bcr229]

I've done this, paper over the UTH and the cypress up front on the cool side covering about 1/4 of the tub. While it does work bear in mind that an active BP will spread the cypress everywhere. Mine also seemed to prefer relieving themselves on the cypress versus the paper.

[cchardwick]

I would think that cypress would be a it more messy, the Reptichip seems to pack pretty tight up in front. So far it's working good, and my snakes seem to like the extra ramp up to the water dish. I did a paper spot clean this morning on one tub, worked great so far. And I poured 3/4 cup water in each tub this morning too to keep the humidity up. I also noticed that my dwarf retic with a stuck shed is camping out in top of the Reptichip LOL.

[Coluber42]

I use a sorry oh hybrid approach too. It's mostly aspen, but there's a paper towel over where the uth is, with a hide over it. I like having whatever is over the uth as thin as possible so that the heat still comes through without the surface over the substrate ever getting very hot.

[cchardwick]

Well it's been a few days since I put this in place and all my snakes are back on the paper towels except my dwarf reticulated python who was stuck in a major shed. Looks like she finally came out of the shed and looks great! I'm able to put two full cups of water on this Reptichip up front, way more than I could add with just balled up paper towels. In this dry climate that should last 3-4 days or more. None of the snakes really moved much of the bedding away from the front, looks like it's working!!

[cchardwick]

OK, after a week of using this hybrid substrate I realized that the paper towels and newspapers are starting to smell a bit moldy. I found a huge old turd pile on the reptichip and I couldn't even smell it when taking a whiff of the tub, I only smelled it as soon as I pulled it out! That reptichip is amazing, I took out all my paper towels and I'm going with 100% reptichip!!!