Everyones Favorite Substrate -

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Originally Posted by RobertCoombs

what about the urates? I think a lot of people dont realize how much liquid is involved in some bowel movements from their animals because they dont see it and it soaks in to the bark and starts growing a nice little bacteria factory

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Don't get me wrong, I agree that all soiled substrate should be removed. However, urine as far as I know is extremely sterile. The extremely high concentration of salts and acids makes it toxic for most living organisms so I kind of doubt substrate soaked in urine alone would harbor much bacteria. Feces however are FULL of bacteria, and I would take extra care that any substrate that becomes soaked with any liquid expelled with feces, urine or not, be removed and all surrounding substrate as well.

Sorry hhw, but urine IS sterile INSIDE the body, but the outside of the body isn't and bacteria can build up if it sits. That's why if you get a urine sample from an animal you need to put it in the fridge. It will slow the bacteria so they can't multiply so quickly. If you've ever seen urine under a microscope, boy howdy. The bacteria are just a swimmin'. Just passing through the urethra, urine can pick up bunches of bacteria. So even if the snake ONLY urinated, scoop out ALL of the soiled substrate, because it does harbor bacteria and will mold. I've seen pee mold in the fridge. Wasn't that fun to clean out... ;) Also, I don't doubt that Mr. Coombs knows his stuff since he's been around snakes for quite awhile. Yay bacteria factorys :) Well, at least that's what we used to say in Clinical Pathology. Yay Streptococcus. :-D Anyway, I hope that explained some things for ya.

depends.....if it is a display cage, aspen, reptibark, cocoanut, is awesome lookin'.....if not.news paper is great,cheap and simple.

http://www.creaturetravelers.com/

That is one source of the coconut husk bedding. I've been using it for just over a week, and so far I like it. My newest BP, Nippy, came to me in a 10 gallon enclosure on some old bark bedding. She had the remnants of an old shed still stuck to her, including what appeared to be a stuck eye-cap. When I bought her new enclosure last weekend, I lined it with the coconut husk and dumped some clean water down onto it to bring the humidity up a bit. While she also has a nice large water/soak dish in the new enclosure, I haven't seen her actually soaking in it yet, but she has gone through another shed and it looks as though this one went much better than her last one. That may be coincidence, but I think the higher humidity of the new substrate also helped a lot.

reptile carpet, its kinda like newspaper in a sense but looks SOO MUCH BETTER. I just put some in roxy's cage yesterday so she hasnt pooed or peed on it so i dont know how easy it is to clean but alot of people said its super easy. i would put it in the corns cage but she goes poo poo like every other day so that would be a real pain to clean it everyday.

it is very easy to clean. i just soak it in hot water/bleach mix in my bathtub for 20-30 minutes and then rinse it out really well. i keep a second clean piece on hand for when i have to clean the first one. which right now is just about everyday (silly nellie thinks there is a drought coming or something and just can't stop gulping down the water...) it dries super fast too so there is never a time when i am without. i do use paper towels from time to time too though, especially if i am cleaning a piece of the carpet and i can tell that nellie is gonna have to go again soon.