Ye Old Substrate Question

I know I'm rehashing an old topic that probably has been brought up many times before, sorry about that.

Substrate. I have used newspaper, reptibark, and a few other things. I only have one snake, so I spent some time building a tank and making a fake rock background for it, etc, so that my ball's home is a nice display tank.

The reptibark looks nice, but it's getting to be a bit of a pain. i do not like loose substrates, I'm finding, because bits get caught in background and fall on the floor, etc, and its a huge pain. I'd much rather switch back to something newspapery.

I don't want to throw all the hard work making a nice-looking tank down the drain by sticking in some newspaper though. :mad::rolleye2:

Repti-carpet would work for me, except that I'm hoping to find something that doesn't look so incredibly fake, since it'll be right next to the rock background, some fake ivy, etc, which all look pretty nice (clearly not real, but green cloth has a way of ruining the effect ;) )

Any ideas on a fake carpet substrate that looks more realistic than repticarpet but isn't as harsh as astroturf? I want something astroturf-looking that is softer, essentially, if that exists.

Thanks

It sounds like newsprint paper is the way to go for you. It's blank, and often a nice cream color so it wouldn't look terrible.

For any homemade cage, a bedding dam of at least 2" is essential. It keeps bedding from being pushed out so you can use the loose substrates, like aspen, and still keep your sanity not having to vacuum every day. :)

Carpet is not the best choice as it can harbor bacteria unless you can totally disinfect each piece every time you clean it. Look into plain newsprint...I think you'll like it.

While we are on this topic, I have been using "T-Rex Desert Snow", stuff looks great, but I was wondering if thickness of bedding matters? Or if their are any cheaper options out their that look as good, beucase this stuff is freaking expensive and I hate the look of news print.

Thanks, but plain newsprint doesn't qualify for the aesthetic aspect, as I'm hoping to find something that looks like either grass or dirt or something. I've dealt with repticarpet before, disinfecting it isn't so bad to me, and I can always replace it yearly or something.

I'll look into that stuff. I don't think thickness matters, really, as long as it can absorb snake waste. Newspaper is quite thin ;)

JK, I realized what you're using is a loose substrate, ignore what I said.