Dirty white snake

I had recently used newspaper as a substrate for my blue eyed Lucy, and he got ink on his head is there any way to remove it? I’ve soaked him but it still hasn’t come off. Should I just wait until he sheds or is there a way to clean him?


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This has never happened to me so this is just an assumption but I think that it'll just end up wearing off eventually. Possibly even before he sheds just through the moisture in the air and rubbing his head on stuff.

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Originally Posted by eeethannn

This has never happened to me so this is just an assumption but I think that it'll just end up wearing off eventually. Possibly even before he sheds just through the moisture in the air and rubbing his head on stuff.

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Hmm idk it’s been on there for a while lol soaking in water didn’t even seem to take it off.


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Sounds like the title to a good hard rock song.


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Originally Posted by Godzilla78

Sounds like the title to a good hard rock song.


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Lmaoo


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It will come off in the next shed, hope it wasn’t something horrid printed on your Lucy
( he was probably trying a temporary tattoo before the real thing lol)


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I had the same thing happen to Shayna, my Albino Spider.

It will come off.

However, I switched to printless newspaper and it's no longer an issue.

I get it from Uline. Good prices and they have all different sizes.

I recently found out that the ink on newspaper is toxic. I was using shredded newspaper for all of my rodent bedding since I could get tons of it for free and shred it in my paper shredder. All of my white rats and mice turned a dirty black color. It affected the mice the worst, their testicles were swollen, they all looked very sickly, the new babies had short tails or no tails at all. I was amazed at how badly it affected them. I changed it out and started using Cypress mulch, all of the rodents recovered in a few weeks. I fed off all of the short tailed mice. Now I avoid even touching printed newspaper with my hands.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I recently found out that the ink on newspaper is toxic. I was using shredded newspaper for all of my rodent bedding since I could get tons of it for free and shred it in my paper shredder. All of my white rats and mice turned a dirty black color. It affected the mice the worst, their testicles were swollen, they all looked very sickly, the new babies had short tails or no tails at all. I was amazed at how badly it affected them. I changed it out and started using Cypress mulch, all of the rodents recovered in a few weeks. I fed off all of the short tailed mice. Now I avoid even touching printed newspaper with my hands.

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Wow I didn’t know. I only used it when I ran out of the normal substrate, and I stopped because he was getting ink on him.


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There are plenty of people that use news paper tho, so hopefully won’t do any damage, but as already said you can buy plain paper


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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I recently found out that the ink on newspaper is toxic. I was using shredded newspaper for all of my rodent bedding since I could get tons of it for free and shred it in my paper shredder. All of my white rats and mice turned a dirty black color. It affected the mice the worst, their testicles were swollen, they all looked very sickly, the new babies had short tails or no tails at all. I was amazed at how badly it affected them. I changed it out and started using Cypress mulch, all of the rodents recovered in a few weeks. I fed off all of the short tailed mice. Now I avoid even touching printed newspaper with my hands.

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Interesting. The wildlife center I volunteer at has used shredded newspaper with all their probably 100+ rats and 100+ mice for years and I've never seen any of these issues. The white rats and mice stay white, everyone is born with their tails, and sickliness is very rare. However, the difference could be the type of ink used in your area's newspaper vs the type of ink used in my area's.

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Originally Posted by Godzilla78

Sounds like the title to a good hard rock song.

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https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...6ef1066cea.gif

^{_{i had to}}

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I recently found out that the ink on newspaper is toxic. I was using shredded newspaper for all of my rodent bedding since I could get tons of it for free and shred it in my paper shredder. All of my white rats and mice turned a dirty black color. It affected the mice the worst, their testicles were swollen, they all looked very sickly, the new babies had short tails or no tails at all. I was amazed at how badly it affected them. I changed it out and started using Cypress mulch, all of the rodents recovered in a few weeks. I fed off all of the short tailed mice. Now I avoid even touching printed newspaper with my hands.

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Originally Posted by Kcl

Interesting. The wildlife center I volunteer at has used shredded newspaper with all their probably 100+ rats and 100+ mice for years and I've never seen any of these issues. The white rats and mice stay white, everyone is born with their tails, and sickliness is very rare. However, the difference could be the type of ink used in your area's newspaper vs the type of ink used in my area's.

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My understanding is that the vast majority of newspaper ink is soy-based and non-toxic, though you still should not ingest it due to the dyes that are used alongside the soy-based components. However, older inks and perhaps some select instances still in use today are/were petroleum-based and reported to harbor some VOCs. It is possible you just got a bad batch. Snake keepers have been using newspaper for a long time with no observable ill effects.

I watched a Youtube video from Justin Kobylka where he talked about how he uses plain paper, as he doesn't want to get ink on his snakes from newspaper print, especially his piebalds and white snakes.
I bought a huge roll of plain brown builders paper the next day. lol