Question about aspen

Hey guys,

I was just wondering if there's a difference between aspen marketed for reptiles, and aspen marketed for small animals? The small animal aspen is much cheaper, but I'm not sure if there's a difference that makes it not a suitable substrate for snakes.

It's probably a silly question, but better to be safe than sorry.

Thanks in advance.

I just use news paper....its cheaper yet. I never used aspen so I cant weigh in on it.

Hey guys,

I was just wondering if there's a difference between aspen marketed for reptiles, and aspen marketed for small animals? The small animal aspen is much cheaper, but I'm not sure if there's a difference that makes it not a suitable substrate for snakes.

It's probably a silly question, but better to be safe than sorry.

Thanks in advance.

Well if you have a BP you should switch from aspen to either cypress or use what i do and mix damp coconut husk and reptibark. it gets your humidity up and looks better than aspen in my opinion. I use aspen for my king snake and i havent seen anything wrong with him since i bought "brand name" aspen bedding.

Instead of making a double post just make a post in one thread to bump it to the active list if nobody responds to it and it falls down the list.

Making double post makes it hard for those trying to help to know what has been said by others and you once the conversation starts.

I use aspen and its fine, I've used it on my BCI girl for about 1.5 years since she was a baby and she about 6ft now. I have her in a Pro-Line HDPE cage and I keep 60% humidity with just a water bowl. As long as the aspen doesn't get soaked, its fine. I wouldn't mist it and if you are using a PVC cage, you wont need to. Its a lot easier to spot poop on it and easy to spot clean. I like it because its cheap and I just throw it all out every month, clean and replace with new aspen.

As for difference in small animal and reptile, it is the same aspen, just stuff like Zoo Med is more finely shredded. I used Zoo Med stuff for awhile and it worked fine but was expensive. I now use Allpet stuff from Walmart which is about $3 for 20 quart bags and the only difference I see is its not as finely shredded but still works plenty good. Both pack down well and my ball python loves making little burrows in it and making secret entrances into her hides. I'm using aspen in a glass tank for my ball python too and I have no problem maintaining 50-60% humidity using just a water bowl in there too. It's all about getting the right amount of airflow vs the size of water surface.

I personally hate Eco Earth as the stuff is messy, sticks to everything, will mold even though people say it wont, will cause mold to grow on any wood item that is put on it like wood logs, hides etc. Also if you don't keep it moist it will dry out and get very dusty. Also just a pet peeve for me but I rather not have my snake sitting on damp substrate 24/7. It works for a lot of people but I think a lot of people use it as an easy out for humidity when like I said, all you need to do it get the right airflow vs water bowl surface and you can get good humidity without subjecting the snake to sitting on dampness 24/7. Cypress would be better imo but its more expensive and since I do complete cage cleanings once a month, its not cost effective for 2 snakes much less when I get snake 3, 4 and 5.

I can't abide Aspen ,It also gets everywhere after handling snakes , cleaning out water bowls / hides / branches etc I don't care for the look of it and prefer the 'look' of beech chippings and use them if its for a dark coloured snake . 75% if mine are either albinos or very light coloured so Aspen wouldn't be suitable anyways , I use Orchid bark to provide a good contrast .

I use aspen for my kingsnake. but for my ball i use a mix of roughly 75% coconut husk and 25% reptibark it makes a nice dark bedding that makes my desert BP really pop out of the tank. it keeps the humidity levels up as well

Any aspen will be fine, but if you want to buy in bulk for cheap I recommend using just plain softwood shavings. Any farm supply store in your area should have it. I use it for 3 rat tubs and 14 snake tubs and as a general rule one bag, costing about $7.00, lasts me for 3 - 4 months. I agree with KMG about double posting. If another post isn't getting a response just post in it to bump it back to the top.

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Originally Posted by KMG

Instead of making a double post just make a post in one thread to bump it to the active list if nobody responds to it and it falls down the list.

Making double post makes it hard for those trying to help to know what has been said by others and you once the conversation starts.

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It was honestly an accident. Lol it didn't go through the first time, then double posted. And I have no clue how to remove a post once it's posted ):

I'm sorry for the confusion.

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Originally Posted by That_One_New_Guy

Well if you have a BP you should switch from aspen to either cypress or use what i do and mix damp coconut husk and reptibark. it gets your humidity up and looks better than aspen in my opinion. I use aspen for my king snake and i havent seen anything wrong with him since i bought "brand name" aspen bedding.

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I used to use cypress but since switching to tubs it was too humid, like 90% all the time. Now with aspen it stays at 55-60%. But I might just add more ventilation because I like the look and the less mess of cypress.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlemisskat

It was honestly an accident. Lol it didn't go through the first time, then double posted. And I have no clue how to remove a post once it's posted ):

I'm sorry for the confusion.

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No need to apologise !

These things happen .

I'm guilty if the occasionally duplicate thread if I'm panicking but I put them in different sections to get extra exposure ...

I have the finely shredded stuff for reptiles and the courser stuff for my rats. I'm actually in the process of changing out my snakes to paper towels, since it's pretty easy to miss things when spot cleaning the aspen and the fine shredded kind is pretty expensive, even when bought at reptile shows (I can get a bag for 20 dollars that I want to say is 2 cubic feet really tightly compressed? It's about the same size as the biggest bag of aspen they sell at petsmart). I don't really like how the small animal grade sometimes has huge chunks of unshredded wood in it and I don't think I would personally use it for my snakes. It's all good for the rats, since I think they actually chew on the mentioned wood chunks.

Other substrates I have used in the past include repti bark, which I don't like for my snakes (I had my first one on it for a bit, but the bark looks a lot like tiny snake poops and is pretty abrasive otherwise), and eco earth for some animals at my parents house (good for frogs and animals that need really high humidity, but a pain in the butt to clean out of a glass tank).