How many of you guys use aspen?

prolly none, WELL, MAYBE the way it's cut (flakes and curls vs shavings) Although mine isn't specially for snakes and its shavings with some flakes

This guy uses aspen!

I never liked newspaper or paper towel. It was always messier than aspen and my snakes always ended up soiling under the paper. I might as well have been using no substrate at that point.

I personally don't like it, it doesn't hold humidity well and leaves the snakes with bad sheds. I don't mind it for colubrids, but for anything else I use newspaper or paper towel.

Fluffpuff, I use aspen. I buy it in a four foot tall block from my feed store for five dollars. I use it for all nine snakes. All the mice and my hedgehogs. Its nice using one thing for everyone :)

i use orchid bark to keep viv humidity up

I use aspen for my females that are about to lay and my hatchlings. I don't have to worry about feeding my females on it, but the hatchlings feed on it. So far I haven't had a lot of issues with feeding on aspen. I try not to mess with the babies much, so they just eat on the aspen. I would prefer that they didn't, but the aspen helps them to feel more secure-or at least I think so, lol.

I won't post the bloody aspen picture again(unless asked to, lol) but as I mentioned before it only takes once for a snake to hammer a rat and miss and strike the aspen and lodge it into the throat.
Using shredded aspen would alleviate this, I'd much rather my snake ingested some shredded aspen that get another piece of hard aspen stuck in her throat :mad:
If a snake can digest bones it can digest a little shredded aspen with ease...

I use nothing but brawny paper towels now.
BUT for those that have never seen that be a problem, do know that snakes have died constricting on paper towels and ingesting the whole paper towel in with the prey item.

Always monitor your feedings ;)

I think the issue of a snake swallowing beeding and becoming sick or dying from it is more a myth than anything else. The reason why is if a snake can digest bone and fur then a little aspen or another snake safe beeding is really not going to hurt your snake. The only issue I could see is if your snake ate heavily soiled beeding which could cause health issues. the solution to this is just keep up with your husbandry, by spot cleaning and changing the beeding regularly.

In the wild a snake is going to end up ingesting all kinds of things dirt, leaves, twigs, etc.

like I said before keep up with your husbandry and you will prevent most snake illnesses

I just switched to shredded aspen, and I'm very happy with. Newspapers were SUCH a pain...the snakes would soak the paper, and by morning, it would be dried and stuck over the heat tape! Paper towel just gets scrunched up in the corner and might as well not be there, plus it's expensive.

The aspen shavings are highly absorbent, so I can spot-clean without any mess or anything left behind. I used aspen shavings before, but they weren't absorbent enough. If a water bowl gets dumped, I don't have to deal with muck.

Unlike lizards, snakes aren't going to be harmed if they accidentally swallow some aspen. An actual wood-chip, maybe, but not shavings or shredded aspen.

I keep new hatchlings on paper towel until their first shed--I want a clean, smooth environment until their umbilicus attachment heals fully. :)

This year I started using aspen on my hatchlings however my adults are on Cypress except for the females being paired who are on newspaper.