Can I use a blanket as temporary substrate?

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Originally Posted by MR Snakes

How can you write so much? ...

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I try to be helpful, rather than be a smart ***. ;)

We have all been both

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I try to be helpful, rather than be a smart ***. ;)

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Glad I’m on your side of the fence on this one.


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Originally Posted by Jellybeans

We have all been both...

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Not saying I can't multi-task, but for a serious question, I'd rather try to share my experience.

I use bath towels and cotton sheets, drapes, or table cloths in all of my enclosures except quarantine tubs where I use paper towels. I’ve done this for almost 20 years. You don’t want anything with a loose weave. The bath towels can’t be the super fluffy type with a lot of large loops, you want the smoother style. I also feed on mine and have only ever had one problem where one of my boas decided that the sheet might just be another rat. She did not catch the sheet with the rat, but after eating decided to then try to eat the sheet. Had fun trying to get that out of her mouth. :weirdface She is the only one to ever try this, and only the one time. I’ve not had any issue with them catching the sheet or towel when striking.

Clean up is easy. I use a plastic putty knife to get any stuck urates or solids off of the material, then the sheet goes into the wash in hot water with detergent and a product called Odor Ban that is a disinfectant and deodorizer. Heavily soiled sheets get a double wash, and bleach if necessary. The benefit is it is reusable, easy to clean, and often pretty inexpensive at yard sales or thrift stores. I usually get several years of use out of each item, so the $2-$5 dollars per item is very cost effective. I also like to do a complete cage wipedown when changing out soiled linens, which really cuts down on any residual odors in the snake room.

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Originally Posted by Dianne

I use bath towels and cotton sheets, drapes, or table cloths in all of my enclosures except quarantine tubs where I use paper towels. I’ve done this for almost 20 years. You don’t want anything with a loose weave. The bath towels can’t be the super fluffy type with a lot of large loops, you want the smoother style. I also feed on mine and have only ever had one problem where one of my boas decided that the sheet might just be another rat. She did not catch the sheet with the rat, but after eating decided to then try to eat the sheet. Had fun trying to get that out of her mouth. :weirdface She is the only one to ever try this, and only the one time. I’ve not had any issue with them catching the sheet or towel when striking.

Clean up is easy. I use a plastic putty knife to get any stuck urates or solids off of the material, then the sheet goes into the wash in hot water with detergent and a product called Odor Ban that is a disinfectant and deodorizer. Heavily soiled sheets get a double wash, and bleach if necessary. The benefit is it is reusable, easy to clean, and often pretty inexpensive at yard sales or thrift stores. I usually get several years of use out of each item, so the $2-$5 dollars per item is very cost effective. I also like to do a complete cage wipedown when changing out soiled linens, which really cuts down on any residual odors in the snake room.

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Could we see some pictures of the blanket/towel substrate in use?
This sounds really interesting and I'm considering trying that when its warmer and humidity is less of a struggle, but I can't quite picture how that would look. Do you spread it out flat like a paper substrate and weight the edges with hides/decor or is it less flat?

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The first photo is one of the 8' cages, so a white sheet is folded and flattened out as the substrate. The wrinkles are from Eli cruising. The blue towel is from my corn snake's cage, he is in there but likes to hide in the folds and occasionally underneath.

The last two are of Button's cage and a linen drape. He likes to cruise through the folds and peek out, so extra layers can act as additional hides. You can see him on the right waiting for the mouse god. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...bb12da70e4.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...dd4f0c500d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4a60440b21.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6796595947.jpg

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Originally Posted by Dianne

The first photo is one of the 8' cages, so a white sheet is folded and flattened out as the substrate. The wrinkles are from Eli cruising. The blue towel is from my corn snake's cage, he is in there but likes to hide in the folds and occasionally underneath.

The last two are of Button's cage and a linen drape. He likes to cruise through the folds and peek out, so extra layers can act as additional hides. You can see him on the right waiting for the mouse god. https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...bb12da70e4.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...dd4f0c500d.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...4a60440b21.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...6796595947.jpg

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Is that typical of their natural surroundings in Africa?

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Originally Posted by MR Snakes

Is that typical of their natural surroundings in Africa?

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Nope. :D

Years ago I frequented kingsnake.com’s boa forum and got the idea from one of the old timers. He’s also the one who tipped me off to the rubbing alcohol trick to get a snake to spit you out. I will be the first to admit it isn’t for everyone. For anyone using paper or newsprint, it’s a viable alternative that has the benefit of being reusable. You can’t use anything torn or with holes/loose weave that they can get caught in. And as I mentioned before, it lets me do a complete clean every time they soil the sheets.

I really would worry about some rodent odor remaining that would inspire one of my silly snakes to try eating the fabric when I'm not looking...even later the
next day. But otherwise, it makes good sense...I especially like the recycling of old sheets, drapes or towels. Besides buying them from yard sales & thrift
stores, you might want to check with your local thrift store about saving the NON-salable ones for you. I used to volunteer in our Hum Soc thrift store here,
& they were always tossing out sheets or towels etc that have a stain here or there...PLUS, the companies that used to buy old clothes/fabric goods to recycle
have NOT been doing so for the last year or more (the "market" isn't there att) SO, it's actually COSTING the thrift store MORE, the more stuff they have to
put into "trash". Unless your area is very different from what's here where I am, you might want to talk to them & see if they'd save you some "throwaways",
either free or cheap?

The other thing that our local shelter does is to sell very cheaply (a dollar each) any non-salable blankets/etc that can serve as pet blankets (like in dog houses
& barns). That actually was MY suggestion and that keeps SO much out of landfill, and the damaged stuff sells like hotcakes, especially in colder weather for
people's pets, but even as a drop-cloth, garage usage & so on.

I'm sure the snakes like the texture of fabric, I just might have to experiment with your idea. My snakes eat from tongs pretty well, so I might not have any
problem with lingering scent. But right now, I'm stocked up on Carefresh... I really did like using the indoor/outdoor carpet, except for the hand-washing.
That's best for only a couple cages at most...a room-full would get old. But something you can machine wash, hmm?

Speaking of recycling- I've cut up some fancy damask roman shades* & lined my china hutch using staple gun. It's a softer landing for good dishes & glass
ware, & looks so nice. *They were bought super cheaply as new but they were store-returns (JC Penney) that were re-sold locally. You could have some
really plush snake-estates using damask if you have a local source for such shades...;)