Opinions on EcoEarth substrate

Hi everyone,

For anyone who is familiar with EcoEarth substrate, what is your opinion for use with snakes? It works well for my crestie, but my ball python seems to make a mess of it. I'm a little worried about him ingesting it. I know another option is aspen chips. I may go that route.

Thanks,

I've used aspen for years and it was fine but harder to hold humidity. Used ReptiChips and it was good except my boas and retic would bury pisses and poop in it so it was hard to find. I'm back to using Eco Earth and it works well for now. The snakes seem to like it but it is kind of messy. The nice part is it's easy to find poops and pisses so it makes spot cleaning easy. Ingesting a little wont hurt them. They eat a lot more foreign stuff in the wild. I do try and feed all my snakes on a sheet of printer paper inside the cages though but I did that with any substrate.

EcoEarth is one of my single favorite things in the world. I use it for Rat bedding, I use it to reduce the weight of dirt. I use it for crickets, I use it for hissing cochroaches.

I'd never use it for my snakes. I used to use Cypress, but it went out of fashion, so I use aspen. Aspen is amazing for snakes. My other option is news print. Eh.

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

EcoEarth is one of my single favorite things in the world. I use it for Rat bedding, I use it to reduce the weight of dirt. I use it for crickets, I use it for hissing cochroaches.

I'd never use it for my snakes. I used to use Cypress, but it went out of fashion, so I use aspen. Aspen is amazing for snakes. My other option is news print. Eh.

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I respected your opinion until you said 'newsprint'.

On as side note though, I was told by a few people that using newsprint over years causes snakes to 'pancake'. They lose their nice squaring shape because the newsprint is so slick and after years of being on it, they are so used to basically flattening themselves out in order be able to get a grip on it that that is how they become as well as losing muscle tone since they again, they cant grip anything. Now whether that is BS I don't know but like I said, I have heard it from a few people.

Cypress is nice but too expensive for me as I throw out my substrate every month for my retic and every 1.5 months for my boas. It would cost me a small fortune to do 7 4x2 cages lol.

And I used aspen for years but the stuff is kind of a pain to try and hold humidity with. I had to work to pull off 70% even with AP cages. using the Eco Earth or ReptiChips, I easily am able to hold the 75-80% for my BP and 80-85% for my boas and retic.

Eh, I'm just not a huge fan of my newsprint (by that I mean the unprinted packing paper) I used it for like 4 years for all of my snakes and, honestly I just never really cared for it. It just never really appealed to me. I ended up getting aspen again because I was breeding and wanted to do MI. I remembered how much I loved aspen and just... don't feel like going back to the paper. When I said "eh" my main point with it was that it feels bland to me.

Oh... have you considered cutting Eco Earth with aspen?

Thanks everyone. I was mainly concerned about it being harmful if my sneak ingests it. Since he has a screen-top cage, it's probably best to keep the EcoEarth to keep the humidity as high as I can.

All mine are kept on orchid bark , looks great , makes the snake look great and it holds as much or a little humidity as you want .


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I haven't looked much into Orchid bark - I haven't seen it in stores around here.

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

Eh, I'm just not a huge fan of my newsprint (by that I mean the unprinted packing paper) I used it for like 4 years for all of my snakes and, honestly I just never really cared for it. It just never really appealed to me. I ended up getting aspen again because I was breeding and wanted to do MI. I remembered how much I loved aspen and just... don't feel like going back to the paper. When I said "eh" my main point with it was that it feels bland to me.

Oh... have you considered cutting Eco Earth with aspen?

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Nope. I was going to cut EE with ReptiChips but like I said, I go through substrate pretty fast as I'm rather OCD about keeping my snakes clean lol. So 14 blocks of EE every month or so are pretty cheap. ReptiChips is pretty cheap as well but like I said earlier, my big boas and retic bury poop and piss in it so I have to sift through every other day and for me, finding retic piss in it is really hard.

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Originally Posted by TattedLass253

I haven't looked much into Orchid bark - I haven't seen it in stores around here.

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Order it online or check plant nurseries or Home Depot or Lowes. Just make sure there is no fertilizer or anything mixed in with it. I personally would order online as that is going to be the best price most likely and if you order enough, its free shipping a lot. I order Eco Earth from Chewy.com and its $4.99 per 3 block pack and if you order over $50, shipping is free. I just order like 12 3 blocks and am set for a couple months.

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Originally Posted by TattedLass253

Thanks everyone. I was mainly concerned about it being harmful if my sneak ingests it. Since he has a screen-top cage, it's probably best to keep the EcoEarth to keep the humidity as high as I can.

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If you have a screen top glass tank, then for sure stick to Eco Earth or some other humidity holding substrate as you will have a much harder time holding humidity.

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Originally Posted by TattedLass253

I haven't looked much into Orchid bark - I haven't seen it in stores around here.

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Sorry ... it may be known as reptibark over there ..

I looked up Repitbark, looks like it's bark from a fir tree, that's not what you want to use for snakes. Also, be sure to look at the expanded volumes when comparing prices. Reptichip expands to 72 quarts, hard to beat that. Right now it's $22.95 on Amazon with free shipping, that's $1.28 per gallon. I can't find anything cheaper per volume unless you are talking just using straight paper, which is a high maintenance mess and doesn't hold humidity at all.

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Originally Posted by TattedLass253

Thanks everyone. I was mainly concerned about it being harmful if my sneak ingests it. Since he has a screen-top cage, it's probably best to keep the EcoEarth to keep the humidity as high as I can.

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not something you need to worry about too much. When you feed simply drop a papertowel over the EE and feed on that, if your snake gets a bit of it on the rat when wrapping it up its no big deal either, as long as they don't fill their mouth completely full. Just be mindful, watch them and if you notice the snake acting oddly check its mouth for some substrate that may have gotten stuck.

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Sorry ... it may be known as reptibark over there ..

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See how it enhances the colouration of the snakes ..
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8a1d14454d.jpg


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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I looked up Repitbark, looks like it's bark from a fir tree, that's not what you want to use for snakes. Also, be sure to look at the expanded volumes when comparing prices. Reptichip expands to 72 quarts, hard to beat that. Right now it's $22.95 on Amazon with free shipping, that's $1.28 per gallon. I can't find anything cheaper per volume unless you are talking just using straight paper, which is a high maintenance mess and doesn't hold humidity at all.

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Maybe it's not ReptiBark in that case ...

In England it's called Orchid bark or apparently Reptile Bark .

There is a photo of the stuff in the post above ..


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I just switched from zoo med forest floor (cypress mulch) to zoo med eco earth (coconut fiber) and have slightly better humidity retentionin an exo terra cage. A bit more messy but think I prefer the way it looks so likely will be combining until I use up the cypress… throwing in a little dampened sphagnummoss has also helped increase humidity.

My only concern is reading some reviews that stated they got snake mites in the aforementioned substrates? I hope that’s not the case with zoo med bedding… I’m buying from Amazon versus a pet store and haven’t seen this (and hoping to not have to treat the substrate first).

I used to use it. My BP is a derp sometimes. He constricts his f/t rats after he grabs them and sometimes after he unwraps he forgets where the head was. He would roll it around and get it absolutely caked in EcoEarth, which led to it getting all over his mouth. I even tried feeding him over a paper plate or a towel and he'd be a big idiot and roll it off into the dirt. I switched him to paper towels for now but it's a lot more maintenance, I'm probably gonna try Reptichip next.

I recently switched from eco earth to reptichip. I didn't have a problem with ball pythons, but my jungle jag carpet missed her target at a couple if feedings and because the eco earth is so fine she got a mouthful of it where it seamed to cake her mouth shut. i eventually had to rinse her mouth out and it was really stressful for her. Now with the switch to repti chip it's a lot more chunky. She had one miss but instead of taking in her mouth a chip got stuck to her tooth and she was able to work it out herself.

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Originally Posted by vikingr

I just switched from zoo med forest floor (cypress mulch) to zoo med eco earth (coconut fiber) and have slightly better humidity retentionin an exo terra cage. A bit more messy but think I prefer the way it looks so likely will be combining until I use up the cypress… throwing in a little dampened sphagnummoss has also helped increase humidity.

My only concern is reading some reviews that stated they got snake mites in the aforementioned substrates? I hope that’s not the case with zoo med bedding… I’m buying from Amazon versus a pet store and haven’t seen this (and hoping to not have to treat the substrate first).

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I've never quite understood that suggestion of a substrate containing SNAKE mites , how would they get there in the first place PLUS how would they survive without blood ?

I got the impression that any mites brought in to a house were simply ON bags of substrate or whatever has been purchased from a reptile store

I've herd of wood mites in cypress mulch, but those aren't snake mites and won't hurt them.

I use EcoEarth in conjunction with Aspen - this was more out of a need to hold humidity for everyone as the humidity in CA is non-existent and it seems that my place of residence is as dry as the Sahara.

Even in a tub I was having humidity issues so I decided to mix 50/50 EcoEarth and Aspen and haven't looked back. Those sheds are soooo good now.

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

I've never quite understood that suggestion of a substrate containing SNAKE mites , how would they get there in the first place PLUS how would they survive without blood ?

I got the impression that any mites brought in to a house were simply ON bags of substrate or whatever has been purchased from a reptile store

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Makes sense... these reviews appear rare/isolated, they could be outright wrong about the origin or maybe their substrate was in close proximity to an infestation at a pet store when purchased (adult mites can live ~ 40-days without a host). Better safe than sorry I threw my cypress & eco earth bags in the freezer... read all stages of snake mites cannot survive more than a few days below 35F

Freeze everything. I freeze rodent bedding, reptile bedding, rodent food, everything but dirt. I've had grain mites and it's horrible

I've never gotten snake mites from substrate ever and I don't freeze or bake or any of that stuff. Just don't buy substrate from questionable pet shops or better yet, order it online. I did get snake mites once on Luna which I'm not sure how she got them as none of my other snakes got them. And I know it wasn't substrate as I use the same stuff for everyone. And that's in like 20 years. Just avoid the places where they are probably going to be like shows and run down shabby pet shops and QT your new snakes.

Hmm it sounds like the bark/chips and ecoearth are both good. Since my buddy is captain derp with his feedings also and pretty much did the same thing, I might just start feeding him in a separate tub without substrate. He does seem to burrow and hide a bit in the ecoearth, so I'm assuming he likes it.

What I do is dangle the feeder in front of them with tongs. Then once they grab it, I just keep a hold of it and slide a sheet of printer paper under them and then set the food with them still attached to it down on the paper. Works good and you would play heck trying to get a boa to let go of dinner lol.

Haha sometimes my BP is kind of indecisive and will set the mouse down and contemplate life for a couple minutes before eating it. Idk if that trick would work. I just fed him in a tub and he has no problems with it :)

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Originally Posted by TattedLass253

Hmm it sounds like the bark/chips and ecoearth are both good. Since my buddy is captain derp with his feedings also and pretty much did the same thing, I might just start feeding him in a separate tub without substrate. He does seem to burrow and hide a bit in the ecoearth, so I'm assuming he likes it.

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I feed all mine ( very successfully ) in their vivs / enclosures and simply place a few pieces of card down on top of the substrate before feeding ..


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If that works for you then that's great!

I just don't see that working with my boy. He drags his food everywhere after moving it around/poking it. He doesn't just snatch and eat it where he gets it.

Haha, that's exactly what mine does. I talk to him like "Oh buddy, I'm glad your weren't born in the wild, you're kinda stupid"

Yeah, they don't eat f/t in the wild, but I've never fed him live so he might do it with those after constriction too.

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Originally Posted by TattedLass253

If that works for you then that's great!

I just don't see that working with my boy. He drags his food everywhere after moving it around/poking it. He doesn't just snatch and eat it where he gets it.

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Well once they've started to munch I guess there is less chance of eating substrate as well . .. Even when they drag it under the card ( which they usually do ) .
If they're eating dropped food or striking over card it should reduce the chances of ingestion I feel

Lol I understand. When I fed him the other day, he got scared and I pictured him having a double chin the way he pulled his head back haha. He always eats, just in his own special way!