Bedding question

I use aspen for both my ball pythons and my iguana. However, I'm interested in Eco-earth or cypress mulch/repti-bark. One snake is in a glass cage and the other is in a wooden one. Any thoughts? Opinions?

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They are all good , but the Mai reason people use Eco eartth and cypress is because they increase humidity really well or people just want the naturalistic look. But I use Eco earth and it's great. Some people even mix these all up to get even better humidity lol .

Coconut husk is another option if you're looking for humidity friendly bedding. When I used it in a glass terrarium, I didi have to mist constantly. However, once I moved my snakes to PVC enclosures that are fully enclosed, the humidity is perfect.

One downside to eco-earth is that it can get really dusty and messy (you may end up with a small pile of bedding on the floor whenever you take something out of the tank). Great for maintaining humidity though; I use it for my frogs.

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Originally Posted by DVirginiana

One downside to eco-earth is that it can get really dusty and messy (you may end up with a small pile of bedding on the floor whenever you take something out of the tank). Great for maintaining humidity though; I use it for my frogs.

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I had a lady come in my store and tell me eco earth had a white film on top. What would that be? She said it may be mold.

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Yeah probs mold :(

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

Yeah probs mold :(

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Well she put a whole big brick in this tiny tank so no wonder lol

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Besides the great humidity benefits, spot cleaning is simple and easy, and you can go a very long time between changes.
Oh, that's with coconut husk.

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Originally Posted by Reinz

Besides the great humidity benefits, spot cleaning is simple and easy, and you can go a very long time between changes.
Oh, that's with coconut husk.

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Sounds awesome

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I used to use Eco Earth for about a year and quit. The advantage of humidity isn't worth the mess it made as well as if you let it dry out, it gets really dusty and yes it can mold even though people say it doesn't. I use aspen for both my snakes and can easily keep humidity of 50%+ by just covering the top of my bp tank and with my red tail boa, she is in a Pro-Line cage which just holds humidity without even trying. I personally would not use Eco Earth in a wood cage as you need to keep it moist 24/7 which could cause the wood floor problems.

As for substrate changes, regardless of what you choose, you will need to change it out every couple months. Any substrate is going to soak up the liquid part of pee/poop. Aspen is just much easier to clean out of cages than Eco Earth which like I said is a mess and gets EVERYWHERE. Plus spotting a poop on aspen is easier than trying to spot a brownish/black poop on brownish/black substrate.

I have only ever used eco earth for pacman frogs. BOY was it a nightmare. Everyday they would smear the entire glass sides of the tank so that it was literally opaque brown.

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Originally Posted by SCWood

I use aspen for both my ball pythons and my iguana. However, I'm interested in Eco-earth or cypress mulch/repti-bark. One snake is in a glass cage and the other is in a wooden one. Any thoughts? Opinions?

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I use Orchid Bark 100% in all mine now .
Looks fantastic , natural , it holds moisture well or you can use completely dry .. It can easily be washed , disinfected with something like F10 then dried and re- used . The dark appearance also dramatically enhances the look of any albinos or light , bright colours ..

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

It can easily be washed , disinfected with something like F10 then dried and re- used.

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When you wash and then dry your orchid bark how do you dry it? When I sterilise mine in water i then move it to the oven leave it in for 30mins, take it out the top will be stone dry but the bottom will always be wet no matter if keep turning it, so yeah how do you dry yours?

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Originally Posted by SRMD94

When you wash and then dry your orchid bark how do you dry it? When I sterilise mine in water i then move it to the oven leave it in for 30mins, take it out the top will be stone dry but the bottom will always be wet no matter if keep turning it, so yeah how do you dry yours?

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You can always give it a good stir halfway through getting the damp stuff to the top . I have a hot heating extractor fan outside with a slab on top of it - the slab gets real warm and stays on for hours so I just leave the the orchid bark in a container on that ...

I forgot to mention that I sieve all the fine dust off before washing .

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

You can always give it a good stir halfway through getting the damp stuff to the top . I have a hot heating extractor fan outside with a slab on top of it - the slab gets real warm and stays on for hours so I just leave the the orchid bark in a container on that ...

I forgot to mention that I sieve all the fine dust off before washing .

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I've heard of that, reptibark, and cypress mulch. I had a bad reaction to reptibark. ..

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Originally Posted by SCWood

I've heard of that, reptibark, and cypress mulch. I had a bad reaction to reptibark. ..

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Heard of which part ?

Is Repti - bark the same as Orchid bark ?

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Heard of which part ?

Is Repti - bark the same as Orchid bark ?

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Oh no its a commercial bark sold by petco made of fir, etc, etc and I had an allergic reaction.
I've heard of orchid bark but isn't it expensive

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It isn't cheap initially but it's re-usable . I've got all my (16) on it and I've got a decent supply as back up so it's just a case of changing dirty substrate for clean and then every so often I clean and dry the used / dirty stuff ...

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

It isn't cheap initially but it's re-usable . I've got all my (16) on it and I've got a decent supply as back up so it's just a case of changing dirty substrate for clean and then every so often I clean and dry the used / dirty stuff ...

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Sounds different lol I'm stuck between ecoearth and cypress mulch

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When I had a tank I used eco earth. Never had issues and just spot cleaned and changed about every month and half. Now I built a rack and just use news paper or kraft paper...that is real easy. Heat and humidity stay great in tubs.

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Originally Posted by SCWood

Sounds different lol I'm stuck between ecoearth and cypress mulch

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I used Eco-Earth a few years ago for my BRB but I hated the stuff . It was great for holding moisture but some mornings it was plastered all over the viv glass which used to annoy me immensely ... also it got everywhere and all over the carpets when I had the BRB out . I solved the problem by having a lush layer of thick rooted moss as a top layer .

I have experience with Eco earth. I absolutely hate it. It's such a mess. it gets everywhere, on the floor, on the reptile, in their mouths... I suppose if you really wanted to use it , you could get it in the bags and then just pour it in the cage. But the expandable stuff is a nightmare to clean. Save yourself the hassle and go with something else. I'm using repti bark and so far so good, though I have yet to try the big coconut husk chips.


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Originally Posted by LivingwithBalls

I have experience with Eco earth. I absolutely hate it. It's such a mess. it gets everywhere, on the floor, on the reptile, in their mouths... I suppose if you really wanted to use it , you could get it in the bags and then just pour it in the cage. But the expandable stuff is a nightmare to clean. Save yourself the hassle and go with something else. I'm using repti bark and so far so good, though I have yet to try the big coconut husk chips.


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What is the difference from the chips? I wanted a bag of the loose stuff lol no point in doing so much messy work just to expand bedding.

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The Eco earth is basically soil. The coco husk chips are big chunks of coconut husk.


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I rock the ground up, non brick form of ecoearth. I boil it and squeeze the excess water out to sterilize it and rehydrate. I do this every week to 2 weeks, sometimes longer. It really depends on when he drops the last meal. I like to bury his hides in it, makes it look more natural to me I guess. If you have like one or maybe 2 snakes I would say this stuff is great. But if you have a collection, no way lol.

If you use Eco Earth, be careful with real wood in there as I had it grow mold on the bottom of the wood where it contacted the damp Eco Earth and sat there. And Eco Earth is messy no matter how you look at it. It sticks to everything and for me, trying to get it out of my Pro-Line cage was just a pain.