What type of substrate do you use?

For Falkor I'm using T-Rex Coconut Bark. I've tried to change it a few times, but he spazzes out bad if I do. Apparently, he has a strong preference for the coconut bark. He also gets some fluker's moss in his hide. Spoiled little prince.

I wanted to switch him over to Carefresh Ultra because we use it for the rabbits as well and it would be easier to see his poop. But apparently, only Coconut Bark will do, or he'll fly up into the fake plants and not touch the ground like it's made of lava. I even tried easing him into it using both, but if there's no bark he loses his mind. He's a very strange corn.

Gomez will be using the Carefresh Ultra. I'm presuming he won't be as picky :confuse:

Zoomed fir bark for ball python. It holds moisture for humidity, it looks good, gives the snake something to rub against when it is shedding, can be spot cleaned easily. It is fairly expensive though. At PetsMart it is 9.99 for 8 quarts, which is enough to fill the bottom of a 20gallon long about 2-3inches.

I have used Repti bark til now. I used paper on the enclosures of my two new snakes today. I have decided I will use paper out of ease. It was ok with one snake, but will become very expensive with multiple snakes I think. I can change all of my herp cage liners in 10 min flat now. I have 5 cages and plan on getting at least 6-7 more in the very near future.

Smulkin and I quickly learned what you just stated, Lars. Aesthetics often take a back seat when you start keeping several herps. Even if cost isn't a concern, ease of maintenance surely is. When we started out with two snakes, it was ReptiBark, glass enclosures, lots of very natural-looking foliage. Now that we keep over 20, it's Sterilites and newspaper.

Funny, though, the snakes don't seem to notice the difference. Their behavior hasn't changed much at all. They still stay in their hides most of the time.

Another lesson I learned today.

Rocks, wood and the such harbor urate. They are porous (spelling) materials. I scrubbed one of the rocks that came with the snakes I got yesterday for 5 minutes today. I could not get that awful smell out. I tossed the rocks and the "Grapevine" wood. The enclosure looked good with them in it, but stank my whole house up. I cleaned that cage for 2 hours today. I filled it with plastic and paper items. I will never have to deal with that smell for more than 5 minutes again as long as I live.

Yes, we learned that too, Lars. We tried different ways to disinfect and deodorize rocks and wood, but ultimately decided that plastic and resin was the way to go.

I like the plastic hides from Reptile Tubs: http://www.reptiletubs.com/

And these reptile caves from Hagen which I believe are made from non-porous resin and can be easily scrubbed and disinfected: http://www.reptiledirect.com/index.a...ROD&ProdID=385

concerning hides, are these the best hides you have found? right now I am using just plastic plant pots upside down, but wanted something that looked nicer for my cage since it's in a highly visible area. I have an Animal Plastics T3 cage in black by the way.

Those are the best hides I've found. If you want something natural looking, go for the Hagen caves. They're nice and heavy and easy to clean. Snakes can climb across them without tipping them over and will sometimes just hang out on top of them. The Reptile Tub hides are lighter and also very easy to clean. Both options are pretty inexpensive.

From http://www.herpsupplies.com they're much cheaper... the only difference is from reptiletubs.com you get a discount on 26+.... I order from Pondside Herp Supply, and get my stuff within 3 business days. Customer Service is great too!

I usually use cypress mulch, but it has become impossible to find now that it is not gardening season! I am currently using the cocnut fiber that comes in a brick, but I despise it; every time I take a snake out, it gets all over the place. I am actually debating using aspen, but the only place I can get it is in the city, and I hardly get out that way!

I used reptibark, but recently picked up what I think is either a new product or just a new product for my area.. it is called Cozy Critter Super Shavings, the bag says it is made of hemlock,spruce and fir. It looks like pine shavings, however it is definately not pine... to the touch, it feels harder, not as soft and "fluffy" as pine either, there is no smell that I can detect, my hubby and kids cannot smell it.... will let you all know how this stuff works out.

what is aspen???

Indented kraft paper for bloods, short tails & my retic, aspen for everything else I keep.

K~

Aspen is wood shavings (good for keeping in the humidity), but it is different from cedar or pine in that, unlike cedar or pine there are no naturally occurring oils that could give your ball an RI. Pine and cedar aren't good substrates because of the oils in them but aspen's a-okay. I swear by it and Allister loves it because it packs down well, and he can burrow in it when he feels like it.

I read somewhere that vinyl is good to use because it is easy to clean and because it holds heat very well. So that is what i am using now. I am going to switch to aspen or something different though.

Alright, so I can't find aspen any where, some one sugeested a feeding store? what kind of feeding store?
The closest looking stuff I could find was a mixture of white fur and euclipitous (sp?) shavings it was a real fine substrate, maybe too fine. Said it was snake safe, as well as any other reptile. Has any body tryed this stuff, or would even deem it actually safe?
thanks

i use aspen, but i'll change to news paper once its finished cuz im too lazy :/ i bought like 2.5 kg of aspen. wonder when that will be finished :) not any time soon.

I've been using Aspen, I usually get the giant bags, I like to cover the tank with about 1-1 1/2 inches of it to let my ball tunnel around, he loves doin that

Does any1 have a snakes that goes to the bathroom in their hide rocks?

any pointers on where to find this stuff?
I live in a fairly large city(Lex KY) so I don't know where to find it, any help would be appreciated, thanks

I use kraft indented paper. I love it..it is really absorbant.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sheets12

I've been using Aspen, I usually get the giant bags, I like to cover the tank with about 1-1 1/2 inches of it to let my ball tunnel around, he loves doin that

Does any1 have a snakes that goes to the bathroom in their hide rocks?

---

Ophelia's taken to doing that as of late. It's not that big of a deal, just clean it out, I suppose. Well, no. I don't suppose; I do it.

I personally prefer aspen. The kids really like it, or so it seems, and Ophelia loves to burrow into it and Ody's taken a liking to doing so.

I like aspen now; the shredded, not the flakes or shavings. It makes a kinda "mat" in your cage that basically stays put; although my bratty BCI like to burrow in it. Care needs to be taken that yer snake cannot be burned by your UTh though, as aspen slides around sometimes. I put some layers of newspaper underneath.

I'm an "other"

newspaper on bottom
zoo med repti bark
aspen on top

easy cleaning, lets air get under the aspen - good humidity and no belly rot.

I thought about newspaper, but I'm such a decorative loser, that I just couldn't bear the sight of black and white print on the bottom of the tank. That, and I wondered if they spilled their water if it would stain their bellies. I don't know...

I use Aspen. It's cheap and works well for picking up snake poo. I think I'd want to switch to some bark pieces eventually. Strangely, I don't have to use much because both Baby and Pharaoh like to renovate and move it to one side so they can loaf on the glass part.

They're weird like that. <3

I gotta tell ya. I switched to newspaper and it works sooo much better when it comes to cleaning. It's a lot easier to replace, and it removes spot cleaning. I just take all of the paper out, wipe the glass down from top to bottom with some form of cleaning supply and put in new paper. Easy.

Not to mention, Dad gets these Bass Masters news papers every week or so so I don't have to BUY anything.

I switched to newspaper a couple of weeks ago - but I don't like to see a bunch of print so I put white paper towels on top.

can someone show me a pic of what ASPEN substrate looks like???

http://www.zoo-erlebniswelt.de/shop/images/239620.jpg

Btw, I converted to just plain newspaper today. Gonna give that a try. Thinking about going the coconut husks route later.

so overall it looks like newspaper is used more then ne other strate! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grim91Z

http://www.zoo-erlebniswelt.de/shop/images/239620.jpg

Btw, I converted to just plain newspaper today. Gonna give that a try. Thinking about going the coconut husks route later.

---

ooo, i like that

Coconut husks for the BP seems to work pretty well. Just gotta spray a little daily. Using fans doesn't help much for humidity, anyway.

I use ZooMed Repti-Carpet for all of my snakes. It is easy to clean (I just hose it down with the garden hose), it allows snakes to shed easily (more easily than on newspaper I imagine), and it looks nice especially the green color and the grey. Oh, and when sprayed it holds humidity very well.;)

Hi this is my first post cuz' I just joined the forum. I bought my ball python a couple days ago, first snake, and I'm using Repti-sand, mostly because it looks nice. Is this bad because I haven't seen anyone say anything about sand on this thread but I've seen cage set ups for balls using it a few times

Sand should not be used at with ball pythons (or most snakes and lizards) due to the health problems that can result from ingesting sharp sand particles.

If you saw someone keeping snakes on sand, then they most likely do not know how to properly keep the animal.

I would dump out the sand immediately and get you some newspaper in there until you pick up some aspen, cypress mulch or other suitable substrate.

Welcome to the forum and I hope that help! ;)

wait a minute. sand can be used with sand boas.;)

now with ball pythons you wanna take the sand out. besides the reasons Daniel listed it can get under the ball pythons scales and irritate the skin. it's so messy too. you'll be much happier with newspaper.

its not natural sand it's calcium based sand so it says its completely ingestible, but if it's going to irritate his scales I'll definitely switch over. do you use whole newspapers or like shredded?

just whole newspaper pages. i put 4-6 layers down.

it's not completely ingestible (thats false advertisement). its one of the worst substrates you can use for any reptile because of the risk for impaction.

K thanks for the heads up I'll switch it out right away

I use aspen most of the time but sometimes I use newspaper.

For the glass tanks I use the eco earth and for the tubs I line them with two sheets of newspaper then ontop of that carefresh.

I bought a 20 Long snake kit for my first ball python. It came with a bunch of stuff including repti-bark. I have heard some so-so stuff about reptibark. I think it looks nice but when I am done I am going to switch to something else. I have a plethura of newspapers here. However, owning just one snake, I like the natural/earthy look for display so newspaper will be last resort. I think I will try aspen next or some soil type stuff. I think the soil stuff might be a little messier. What bleach to water ratio would be good for cleaing??? And how often do you think? I have onyl had Stryker for a week and he hasn't eaten or pooped yet!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wolfsnaps

I bought a 20 Long snake kit for my first ball python. It came with a bunch of stuff including repti-bark. I have heard some so-so stuff about reptibark. I think it looks nice but when I am done I am going to switch to something else. I have a plethura of newspapers here. However, owning just one snake, I like the natural/earthy look for display so newspaper will be last resort. I think I will try aspen next or some soil type stuff. I think the soil stuff might be a little messier. What bleach to water ratio would be good for cleaing??? And how often do you think? I have onyl had Stryker for a week and he hasn't eaten or pooped yet!

---

My vet told me 50/50, but check with yours and if you do use bleach, be sure to rinse until you're blue in the face. You don't want any of the bleach residue/fumes to be left behind. I kept using it, until I found out about the chlorhexidine that ppl mention HERE on site. WONDERFUL stuff!! And it's the same thing that the vets use to clean clinic tables, or soak their instruments in and animal body cleanings during castrations, etc. U can buy a bottle or jug of that stuff and mix it with water.........lasts a good long time. :D :D

I prefer a more natural look and like the aspen, but when I first started w/the tank, had to mix some of the coconut hull Eco Earth with it because of humidity problems. I don't have those any more. Some of their homes are aspen-only and some are the aspen/eco earth mixed together....depends on the tank/tub.

I use regular old newspaper , its true it dosnt look that nice , and i would probably use aspen if i only had the one snake. But apart form Bob my royal i have a pair of childrens pythons and a hoggy aswell plus 6 leos , a tokay and a few spiders , so newspaper on the snakes cuts out alot of cleaning and gives me more time to dedicate to all of my beasties :)

I use Newspaper for all my snakes , easy to use readily available and cheap. Not the best looking by any means but I find it practical and effective.

Well, Stryker pooped. I tried to pick it up, reptibark is going to have to go, not easy to clean IMO. I picked up some of that eco-earth coconut fiber stuff. IN a week or so I am going to switch to that. Its pretty cheap, I was going to go with aspen but I saw the price of this stuff so I am going to try it. I am having issues with keeping humidity up so hopefully this works. I also picked up some moss/lichen mix to give the tank some color (remember, I only have one snake so I might as well go all out). After I switch the tank over, I will have to post some picks, it will either look awesome or hideous. Heres hoping for the former!!!

Cage carpet!! It is awesome. I got two sheets, that i alternate. When ever he sheds i change it with a complete scryb down of the cage!!

i use terrarium bedding. its the green astro turf looking stuff. great for shedding. aspen is my second choice.

Don't have the snakey home yet, but I'm considering using cypress with a piece of repti-carpet underneath (to protect from the UTH). Does that sound reasonable?

Paper towels (plain white.) It gives you a nice, bright floor to work with and it is so easy to clean (very absorbent too!)

i use asteo turf cheep, reusable.