Substrate

What I'm using now gets dirt under his scales. I have the proper equipment to keep his tank humid with NO substrate. Just because you can't afford nice things doesn't mean I can't ;)

Thanks much appreciated!

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Originally Posted by MalachiJ

What I'm using now gets dirt under his scales. I have the proper equipment to keep his tank humid with NO substrate. Just because you can't afford nice things doesn't mean I can't ;)

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Cant afford nice things? I build all my own cages, utilize some vision cages, provide naturalistic environments for all my animals to simulate their native environment, constantly research the species I am keeping in order to perfect their husbandry, and am financially stable enough to support my hobby. Your initial post was that your snake was an albino and got dirty easy. Using paper towels, newspaper, and wood shavings create no benefit for the animal they are all used to make life easy for the keeper. People constantly over look proper husbandry because they want something aesthetically pleasing to their eye. IMO if you have to constantly mist an enclosure daily, and utilize a fogger than the husbandry isn't dead on because the environment is drying out too quickly. But hey what do I know...

I obvious don't want to use newspaper or paper towel, I said something that looks nice and won't get my snake dirty.

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Originally Posted by MalachiJ

I obvious don't want to use newspaper or paper towel, I said something that looks nice and won't get my snake dirty.

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I understand you don't want you use newspaper or a paper towel, it was an example. Again looking nice and keeping a snake clean don't always mesh with owning a reptile. If you want zero mess then by all means use aspen, it is about as clean as it gets, just be ready to constantly change it out because with misting and fogging it will mold. All other wood substrates will generally have some sort of particle that will get on the animal, and will eventually have to be changed out. I really don't know what other answer you want. It is an animal that drags its entire body across the ground it will get substrate on it no matter what you use.

I HATE aspen. I know some people on here use it successfully, but I hate the look of it, it doesn't hold moisture well, and those sharp little pieces get stuck to everything. They would even get stuck in the corners of my garters' mouths (several of mine like to rub their faces dry after drinking).

Some people use eco-earth, and it seems to work fine, but does get kind of messy when at the humidity you'd want for a BP. I only use it for tropical enclosures where it's constantly pretty soaked or things like tarantulas that you never really do a lot of handling or tank changing. I do keep my turtle on it because she has to dig, and there is always a trail of it across the floor whenever I get her out.

I use newspaper for my garters, because I have several that don't have perfect seals on their mouths, and anything dusty or particulate would always get stuck to their gums. I even had a couple mouth infections from it. Plus, they really seem to like having the different layers paper to hide under. I wouldn't recommend it for a BP because of the humidity needs though. That and there's really no in-between; it's either dry or soaked.

For my BP I use cypress mulch. It holds humidity well and will occasionally get some debris on the snake, but it's worked well for me.

Thank you, doesn't have to be the cleanest thing ever but what I have now is just plain messy and dirty. Gets under his scales, and has to go.

Okay, fwi- people on this forum care about their animals, that's why they're on the forum! So talking down on somebody like that won't get a good reaction. Especially when you make assumptions.

I cleaned-up a few posts in this thread as deemed appropriate. Please keep on topic going forward, everyone. :colbert:

There are so many options, personally a nice clean white paper towel floor looks great to me.
Try different things and see how it goes BUT remember to keep it clean and professional here please.