Paper Towels vs. Aspen

Hi,

Today, I'm cleaning my snake's enclosure :)

I was wondering what do you guys use, aspen or paper towels?

I really like how my snake can borrow in aspen, but paper towels seem like an easier clean up, prettier, and looks comfortable for the snake.

What do you use?

Paper towels. Only because aspen makes a mess, and I had a snake get a small chuck wedged in his mouth. Ohhhhh if only we could teach them to wash thier food before eating. Lol.

Here in the great land of KS, paper towels are easier to come by. As well as being cheaper. :)

Ive been using coconut bark for now. Once i go to tubs tho Ill switch to newspaper or something similar.

I use newspaper at the moment.

I use unprinted news paper or scott shop towels. I do not like loose substrate

Alright, I just cleaned my snake's enclosure.

Right to left:

Fake plant, warm hide, water bowl, log, cool hide, and an alligator stone on top to hold it down.

I'm using paper towels, he is investigating it now, He seems to like it, and so do I :) I only wish he didn't track water all over the place with his water bowl :/ Everything else looks so clean and.... white!

We'll have to wait and see how everything goes, but I really like the paper towels so far :)

Paper towels for six quart tubs, unprinted newspaper (aka packing paper from Lowes) for all others.

Did Aspen my first year, hated the mess - and when I use paper - when they soil the paper, it's not a spot clean - it's a real clean - I like that.

Newspaper Easy, Quick, Cheap....

This changed my mind on everything. Plus its going to cut costs down. I might just use Paper Towels now. =P

I've only had my BP for a couple months and I'm using Aspen.

I love it so far. It looks more natural and the mess isn't bad when you only have one snake to deal with.

I can see how it would be a pain in the ass if you had a lot of snakes.

Paper towels, news paper. I use indoor/ outdoor carpet. or this new stuff called reptile carpet. I am very nervous of mites. If you supply a hide or two, I have found that they SEEM to be as happy. Just my thought.

IMO Aspen is the way to go, ive used it for years. Paper towels I use on Neos. but once they start eating regularly they get switched to aspen. I wont use multch because the bugs drive me nuts, and ive also had issues with bacteria/fungal infections when ive used sphagnum moss in the past too, so any subtrate that isnt "cured" I dont feel comfortable using.

Aspen, newspaper, paper towels work great tho! I just prefer aspen over them

I'm using newspaper at the moment, because no one local stocks sani-chips. :P

I use paper towel with hatchlings sometimes.

A WARNING ABOUT PAPER TOWEL:
Because paper towel is relatively soft and flexible, there is an increased risk of ingestion (over newspaper) when the snake is feeding. If the snake manages to get the paper towel wrapped up with its prey, it may wind up with paper towel in its mouth as it's eating the mouse/rat. If this happens, the snake will keep swallowing. I have had to retrieve paper towel from a snake's mouth at least twice--once, a hatchling had the sheet 1/2 down the hatch.

If you use paper towel, always check up on the snakes after handing over food. You don't want them to succeed in swallowing a paper towel, it could easily cause an intestinal blockage.

Paper towel is also extremely absorbent, thus can make cleaning easier. It's pretty sanitary. But you have to be aware. Wood chips also pose some risk, watch those as well.

Newspaper is usually pretty safe, but I wouldn't put it past a determined constrictor to try to swallow that as well, if it happened to get stuck to a rat. Supervise feedings with this in mind, and make sure the snake only swallows its prey.

hi,
i only use paper for hatchlings, otherwise i hate the look of paper towles, newspapers,... in the rack. I use something aspen like.
if using paper, and the snake makes a mess, you have to make the whole tub new, the paper is soaked with the mess, if you be to wild, the water spills out, you have to make it new,....
in my opinion aspen bedding is much much better. you only have to take out a piece of it with the mess,...
and i think for little keepers/breeders, the costs of bedding shouldn't be an argument.

Unprinted newspaper. Cheap and effective.

I found that aspen and cypress had the issue of leaving bits of wood on my floor, which would get on my socks, in my shoes, and would end up hurting a lot.

I use both, depending on the time of year and my laziness.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

I use both, depending on the time of year and my laziness.

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I used paper towels today because I was too lazy to go get aspen :P

But I seem to like it.

paper towels for geckos, babies and new arrivals.

newspaper (blank or printed) for adult established animals.

Also...

If you vote...

Please reply with why you like that choice of substrate.

Thanks,
Mac

Paper towels for all snakes all sizes.

If I only had one or two probably aspen.

But I read that paper towel has extremely toxic chemicals like Zinc..it will be very toxic to animals...:taz:

I use the indented craft paper from Uline. I buy it on a roll and cut pieces to fit my tubs. Its very thick - I really like it. Its not cheap though but worth the price. One huge roll last like a year.

I used to use Aspen but also had a bad experience with my Albino getting it stuck in her mouth so that turned me off to using that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xperience

But I read that paper towel has extremely toxic chemicals like Zinc..it will be very toxic to animals...:taz:

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I read the glue that binds the paper to the roll and the glue used to hold the roll together contains zinc.
Not the paper towel itself.

I've used paper towels for 3 years and have seen no effect what so ever, just super healthy active well eating snakes that breed like rabbits :P

I use paper towels for hatchling snakes, geckos, and new snakes. I use either aspen bedding, paper towels, or paper towels with a thin layer of aspen either above or below for adult snakes.

I use paper towels for my geckos because they poop alot, and for Lily I use coconut because she likes it and it keeps the humidity up. When she eats I'll put her in a critter keeper with no substrate and a hide.

Ok well I had a really bad experience with a piece of aspen stuck up&down ways in my pastel's mouth one day and often minor snake surgery we dont use aspen. Might have been a one time thing but....so I switched to very very fine pine shavings ( which no one has mentioned yet...are they bad too?) And they have worked great!! I have a smallish collection of 21 kids.
I have used papertowels off and on but it seemed like I was cleaning tubs every 3 days! It has been way easier to spot clean daily and then completely dump tubs one a month at our house...And of course hatchlings get paper till they move to the rack...