Cypress mulch for ball pythons.... substrate help?

Hey I'm live near Salem in Oregon, I've heard of cypress mulch, that it's great for humidity, and bps love it. I have been looking for it and can't seem to find it any where, i checked lowes, home depot, and about 10 other garden center areas. The only thing that I can find like it is hemlock mulch. I didn't get it because I thought it might be bad for my snakes. Does anyone know if it is or isn't? Right now I keep them on the compressed coconut fiber, like the bed of beast or eco earth stuff. This stuff holds humidity well at first but once it dries out it's like impossible to keep the humidity at 50% for long then 10 hours. I plan on expanding my collection and I'm beginning to realize if i ever want to go some where overnight I need a substrate that holds better humidity. So does anyone know where I can find cypress mulch in the salem/corvallis area, or have any tips? Maybe another substrate I can buy in bulk at a cheap price that is also great at holding humidity? Thanks in advance

What are you currently housing them in? Tanks? If so and you're planning on expanding your collection, tubs might be a better route to go. You could put newspaper in those as substrate, as they tend to hold the humidity in better than tanks anyway and wouldn't be as much of an issue then. As to finding the cypress, I can't help you there. Sorry! I ordered mine off the web and while shipping was a painful experience for the cost incurred, that's the only place I was able to find it. Good luck!

I think it's okay as long as it doesn't have pine, cedar, or fertilizers. However, I have no idea about Hemlock mulch, so I personally wouldn't take the risk. I would perhaps suggest bigger pieces of coconut husk, I've heard it holds humidity better. However, you can always buy cypress mulch online...

http://www.bigappleherp.com/Zoo-Med-...=2&category=29

You can also make a humidity hide, or a cheap humidity device. Basically, put some water in a plastic cup with a lid on it and cut a hole in the lid, some people do the same but with sphagnum moss. Maybe you could even put some moss around your terrarium and what not. For the humidity device, fill a cup with water and poke a few holes in the top. For both of these, they should be placed on the hot side of the terrarium. You could also invest in a automatic spraying device of sorts.

If you're using a tank with a screen top, cover over 70% of the top to keep humidity. You could also once a week simply pour a few cups of water (depending on how big your terrarium is), and stir it in well. I usually do this if the coconut husk becomes too dry.

This site has some ideas on increasing the humidity:

http://www.rcreptiles.com/blog/index...idity_problems

As to using hemlock, I wouldn't advise it. Certain trees, pine and cedar especially, secrete oils that can kill your snake(s) or at the very least make them seriously ill. Certain species of hemlock are also poisonous, so depending on what type/species of hemlock it was, that might be baaaaaaaaaaad news.

There's no hard and fast rule for what will work every time, as a lot of the equation depends on your setup and what your heat sources are. I had ceramic heat emitters on my tanks for a short time along with the UTH's and while they kept the temperatures up nicely, they destroyed the humidity.

There are a lot of people on here with way more knowledge than me that might hit in and offer some tips; you're in the right place to get an answer to your questions, so good luck!

Ya I have thought of some of those things, and thanks for the advice on the hemlock I won't use it. Idk what I'm going to do yet I'd really just like to find some cypress mulch, that doesn't cost any arm and a leg to get.

Keep checking your area for cypress, most places don't stock it over the winter months so it could be that they just don't have it in stock yet. The stores in my area just got it in a couple of weeks ago.

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Originally Posted by benwallage9

Hey I'm live near Salem in Oregon, I've heard of cypress mulch, that it's great for humidity, and bps love it. I have been looking for it and can't seem to find it any where, i checked lowes, home depot, and about 10 other garden center areas. The only thing that I can find like it is hemlock mulch. I didn't get it because I thought it might be bad for my snakes. Does anyone know if it is or isn't? Right now I keep them on the compressed coconut fiber, like the bed of beast or eco earth stuff. This stuff holds humidity well at first but once it dries out it's like impossible to keep the humidity at 50% for long then 10 hours. I plan on expanding my collection and I'm beginning to realize if i ever want to go some where overnight I need a substrate that holds better humidity. So does anyone know where I can find cypress mulch in the salem/corvallis area, or have any tips? Maybe another substrate I can buy in bulk at a cheap price that is also great at holding humidity? Thanks in advance

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This is the cypress mulch I would recommend. You can get it shipped right to you door. http://www.serpenturf.com/

You can buy cypress mulch at your local pet store that is intended to be used with reptiles. I use to pull my hair out going crazy trying to keep humidity up for my bp's until I finally broke down and bought a console humidifier. Now I just set the humidifier at 60% and my reptile room stays at a constant 57%-63% humidity. All my snakes have perfect a shed every time and I don't have to worry about my bp's getting an R.I. from incorrect humidity levels. I would recommend a humidifier to anybody who keeps bp's.

I'd also avoid hemlock it can be toxic to humans who knows what a snake would react. http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_bas...the_Woods.html

I am in Canada and cyprus mulch is only available thru pet stores and is horrendously expensive. Additionally it is in places threatened and placed on threatened lists it seems a sin to me to use cyprus that is critical to the everglades for my snakes.

Coco products will hold humidity very well and are very inexpensive. Off the shelf at the local garden centre it is 8$ for 110L (3.88 cubic feet) cyprus here is 25$ for 22L (0.8 cubic feet) I actually get coco coir for quite a bit less as I ordered a bunch when one of the local organic farmers did his yearly order and got it for about half that price it is hard to convert as I got weight over volume.

I got mine off amazon for a great deal so i would check there.
However, and perhaps I'm missing something, but mine seems to dry out and I find its sharps and barky (almost like repi bark). Any suggestions or comments? At the beginning it was great really mulchy but now it seems prickly