Aspen or Eco Earth

The title basically says it all. I want to know from experienced or not experienced ball python owners, which substrate is the best. Aspen is probably the most used, but does it hold humidity in a storage tub? I heard eco earth is very good at holding humidity and if i use eco earth in a storage tub, will there be too much humidity?

thnxs for all replies

Personally I am not a big fan of aspen. It seems to get nasty a lot quicker. I have noticed mold around the water dish if a little bit of water is spilled out, which happens a lot. I was constantly having to mix my bedding around because if it sat on one place with a little water in it then it would start molding.

I use coco fiber, which is what eco earth is, and i love it. It holds humidity very well and masks odor much better. I also dont get any more mold or discoloration if it stays damp in one spot. As far as it getting too humid, i wouldnt think you would have a problem. as long as you have enough holes in the tub for ventilation then you should be fine, and you can always put more holes if you need to.

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Originally Posted by cstruthers

Personally I am not a big fan of aspen. It seems to get nasty a lot quicker. I have noticed mold around the water dish if a little bit of water is spilled out, which happens a lot. I was constantly having to mix my bedding around because if it sat on one place with a little water in it then it would start molding.

I use coco fiber, which is what eco earth is, and i love it. It holds humidity very well and masks odor much better. I also dont get any more mold or discoloration if it stays damp in one spot. As far as it getting too humid, i wouldnt think you would have a problem. as long as you have enough holes in the tub for ventilation then you should be fine, and you can always put more holes if you need to.

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Do you use this in a tub, or a tank? And how many snakes do you have?

I have 7 snakes and while they are all in the racks now on newspaper, when I had 4 in tanks I was using ecoearth. I loved it! It held moisture great so humidity wasn't a problem even in a screened top tank, and clean up was pretty simple. the one thing I didn't like was the way it clung to the bottom of hides and the water dish. pulling those things out was a nightmare. keep a vacuum handy!

I have used Eco Earth in the past and I really liked it. It holds humidity really well. The only thing I didn't like was when I had to spot clean, it was really hard to tell where the snakes would pee when I had to clean it. As was said, have a vacuum handy when cleaning that stuff up.

I use coco coir which is eco earth, in everything enclosures tanks and tubs in a rack system it holds humidy well the only thing I have done is to either use loose in a bulk bag and not 'expand' in or to expand it with boiling water but use as little as I can and break it up by hand it does generate too much in the rack and it doesn't dry out very quickly.

Ive never used the Eco earth with my balls. I use Aspen right now bc in my area it's cheapest. But it's quite true you have to mix it up in the tub every other day or so. It will get water logged and moldy say under a water dish.

Newspaper. Cheap or free. Does a great job. Easy to clean. Humidity usally isn't a big problem when using a tub.

Just one man's opinion.
Jim Smith

My snake count is below.
All are currently in tanks and I mix aspen and coco about 50%
Holds in the humidity great.