Cedar or Aspen for feeders?

What do u guys keep ur feeders on? I had the one mouse on the astroturf section i had cut for her old 10 gallon tank (in the 10 gallon tank) but th emouse didn't seem to like it and started chewin it up to make a nest. So I went to the petstore today to get Andariel a CHE (BTW, works great so far ;) got a 100W cause the 50W repti bulb i had wasn't keepin the temps up quite high enough and she started to blow bubbles, but the heat is about 85 degrees ambient right now so that'll clear up soon). And I asked the guy at teh store and he looked in a book and said that aspen would be better for the mice/snake...

I remember someone sayin that snakes shouldn't feed off anything that was on some certain kinda substrate cause it was poisonous or somethin. Was that Cedar or Aspen? (If its aspen Imma go get some other stuff tonight for the mice).

BTW, I'm askin cause i picked up three mice today and instead of whackin them and throwin them away one at a time as I have been (since i didn't have a suitable enclosure for the feeders before) I'm gonna keep these until she eats them, then get a couple more. I also got a brown and two black mice this time, since Andariel didn't seem very interested in the "white lab mice". Maybe color does make a difference, we'll see.

Thanks ;)

-Chris

Just as you don't want you snake on cedar you probably shouldn't put the feeders on it either. I don't keep my own feeders, but this is what I've read others say.

snakes can't see colors.

Aspen....definitely.

i've always heard good things about aspen.

Aspen works well.
The deal with cedar (and all wood shavings) is that there is a natural oil in the shavings. Said oil (which is extra strong in cedar) causes severe respitory problems in small animals and reptiles. This can lead to death.
I always recommend aspen or Carefresh (the later is better but much more pricey) I accually mix both together to make the carefresh last a bit longer for my rabbit and six ferrets.
Ok, that's about it.
thanks
Rusty

Cedar is extremely toxic to all reptiles...so it would not be a good idea to keep them on it.

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Originally Posted by Wizill

snakes can't see colors.

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then what do they see? i agree they may not be able to tell the difference between brown and black...but definitely they can see white and black. you might also think they wouldnt be able too tell the difference because of poor eyesight(that came to my mind anyway) but i have heard it said by a few people that african snakes seem to have better eyesight and be able to recognize different things better then snakes from other places. anyways... i have a BP that will not take white mice but will always take black...thats my evidence :D

you use coincidence as evidence?

youve never heard of anyone elses ball python not accepting white mice but taking black? its something ive come across a few times. but do you really believe that they cant see the difference between black and white?

Another possiblility for a "substrate" to keep the feeders on is rabbit pellets. If you get the plain alfalfa ones, they're fairly cheap from feed stores, completely edible so if the mice chew on them it's no problem, they help control odor, and if one sticks to a mouse and your snake ingests it, still no problem.

Thanks guys. I just wanted to make sure that I had them on something that wouldn't hurt Andariel if/when she ever decides to eat one of them lol.

-Chris

I have not tested the theory yet because all the mice at my pet shop where i purchase them are allways white, but the former owner of my BP said that he would not except anything but WHITE mice. He said that he had tried black mice but he would not take it. One day I am going to find a black mouse and I am gonna test it out. So....can they see color? Dont know. But makes me wonder.....

well i mean, it's been proven 1000 times by scientists. snake's see heat. if you put them in the freezer, they wouldnt see anything at all...

um...about the color things.... black and white technicaly aren´t colors. they are absence and esence of colors.

its been proven that snakes rely on sight. http://www.rochester.edu/pr/releases/bcs/snake.htm
but thats corn snakes not ball python...you might be interested in it any ways. but i believe that ball pythons see heat and color(or black and white) otherwise they would have evolved with smaller eyes or even no eyes. theyve got eyes, theyve got eyeballs. i dont think theyd have them any more if they were useless. AND they move them around. which shows that they are seeing different things which would a least require them to see shades of grey...and they dont move them around aimlessly.

well all i know is what scientists have written. what do they know?

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um...about the color things.... black and white technicaly aren´t colors. they are absence and esence of colors.

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Black's not a color.....Crud! Then Im going to have to pick a new color to be my favorite. Guess I can toss the black and white out of the crayon box then.
Hmmmm....Black is my favorite absence of color now. (all in fun) :lol:

btw, interesting article. thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the link to the article, very interesting
Thanks
Rusty

Will,
They aren't blind to the visible spectrum. They can see like we can, but they can also sense heat. How they incorporate these two senses is hard for us to imagine, but they do see with their eyeballs, like we do. Most agree that they probably are colorblind, and do not have very good distance vision.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wizill

if you put them in the freezer, they wouldnt see anything at all...

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That's because there is no light in the freezer, and when you close the door, it's dark! You couldn't see, either!
(just playin with ya!)

well randy, i'm gonna go with your theory.. because well, you've never steered me wrong. but i honestly do have books that say otherwise. they give the snake the benefit of the doubt, and claim they can make out objects that contain heat with their site, using their heat sensers...

and thanks for clearing it up, as well as making me feel like a jackass ;)...


btw, glad to see you survived the holidays!! :)

great article you post Mike.
It was very interesting and appealing for me.
Jesús

haha...im glad everyone liked the article. and im glad wizill finally saw it my way(jk). anyways...theres probably plenty of articles to read out there if you look around for a few minutes. -Mike

just so you know, i still think you're wrong.:)