What Do You Use?

Just trying to see what other people are currently using as substrate.

1. Coconut Husk (Eco Earth)
2. Aspen Shavings
3. Reptile Prime
4. Cypress Mulch
5. Peat Moss
6. Orchid Bark
7. Artificial Turf
8. Reptichip
9. Carpet Bedding (Eco Carpet)
10. Newspaper
11. Paper Towels/Shop Towels
12. A Mixture of Different Substrates
13. Other

Forest Floor cypress mulch.

As a random side note I did try to use paper towel for a brief time (exactly one day) in the first few weeks I got my first BP as I thought it might be easier to monitor his health. He absolutely hated the paper towel. He refused to touch it, would only move around the enclosure at the sides, and even climbed onto a ledge on his tub that I didn't even know existed before I found him hanging out there. I took him down from the ledge and tried putting him under a hide.

The next morning I woke up to find him sleeping on top of his hide and that was the end of it. I switched him back to cypress mulch and he's been fine ever since. Won't be using paper towel with him ever again!

I use brown craft paper in my tubs. Cheap, easy clean up.


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Aspen and coco chip (which is very similar to reptichip)

I use Reptichip but recently starting mixing it with Reptile Prime and the two combined seem to work very well.

My set up is in my living room. Paper towels, as soon as I see waste, the tank gets clean. Whether it’s 1:30 at night. Or 5:30 in the morning. Poop is gross, urates are just as bad. I would not want to be in my own waste for one second, that’s for sure. Peace, just my own preference.

I use the "Poll" option when posting.....:rofl:



Indented Kraft Paper and Aspen

Currently using ReptiCarpet (at the recommendation of our vet), and I'm really enjoying the ease of cleanup. I bought two, so I plan to alternate them every week/every other week in order to fully clean and disinfect.

I am using a mixture of cypress mulch and eco earth.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by KevinK

I use the "Poll" option when posting.....:rofl:



Indented Kraft Paper and Aspen

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Yeah, I tried to make a poll but no matter what I did it wouldn't work.

Reptile Prime for my snakes.

I currently use:
ball pythons - plain newsprint paper
boas - single face corrugated
colubrids, ATBs and blood python - reptile prime

Created a poll for you :gj:

I only have a BP and use the coconut fiber

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For the BP enclosure I use a mixture of Forest Floor Bedding and unscented cat/rodent pellet litter made from recycled newspaper. It has made a huge difference for odor control. At shed time I only use the forest floor bedding because the newspaper pellets tend to suck the humidity out of the air.

For my ratsnake I use only Forest Floor bedding. She doesn't stink nearly as much as Spot (sorry Spot) and she will sometimes burrow under it.

The poll says that 1 person voted for "other". I wonder what he or she is using?

Reptichips for the BP's, newspaper for their breeding or when substrate gets low. papertowel for babies. aspen for Colubrids. :)


Edit: also i use EcoEarth for my Coxi. i wanna try ReptilePrime tho, at least for the (non-baby) BP's.

Cypress Mulch, transitioning to Coconut, for BP.

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I do a layer of eco earth topped with coconut fiber. Recently tried reptichip and it’s pretty good but I had to pick plastic out of it. So far the best coconut fiber I’ve gotten is Kritters crumble on Amazon. It’s much higher quality imo softer, no plastic, and looks nicer.


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I use paper towels in my quarantine tubs, but everyone else is on cotton sheets or towels. Cleanup us easy and the sheets are reusable, just scrape solids into the trash and throw the sheets into the wash.

Can anyone who has used a coconut chip bedding comment on how it holds humidity, compared to a cypress mulch substrate? Been thinking of making the switch to a coconut substrate, but didn't know about how well it holds humidity or if its as soft as my normal cypress mulch and eco earth blend.

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Originally Posted by Treeman

The poll says that 1 person voted for "other". I wonder what he or she is using?

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Coco chips which are not reptichip but another brand ;)

Coconut beddings have been used in horticulture and used by old school breeders for a long time but being advertised for reptile keepers is something pretty new.

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Originally Posted by Skeptiball

Yeah, I tried to make a poll but no matter what I did it wouldn't work.

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Seems to be working now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Coco chips which are not reptichip but another brand ;)

Coconut blessings have been used in horticulture and used by old school breeders for a long time but being advertised for reptile keepers is something pretty new.

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Like the ProCoco brand? how has it been working?

Some of my cages have aspen, two have cypress . . . Most, though, get paper towels.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Treeman

Can anyone who has used a coconut chip bedding comment on how it holds humidity, compared to a cypress mulch substrate? Been thinking of making the switch to a coconut substrate, but didn't know about how well it holds humidity or if its as soft as my normal cypress mulch and eco earth blend.

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Coconut fiber is much softer than cypress mulch. It’s also easier for them to dig and holds humidity well if you put eco earth down first.


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I’ve tried about everything, and my favorite is coconut fiber, because it absorbs waste and odor so effectively.
Nothing else I’ve tried comes close.
I currently use eco-earth brand.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Treeman

Can anyone who has used a coconut chip bedding comment on how it holds humidity, compared to a cypress mulch substrate? Been thinking of making the switch to a coconut substrate, but didn't know about how well it holds humidity or if its as soft as my normal cypress mulch and eco earth blend.

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With my limited experience with coconut chip bedding was not good. Lots of issues of it getting in the mouth and annoying the animal. I replaced it almost right away.

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Originally Posted by Godzilla78

I’ve tried about everything, and my favorite is coconut fiber, because it absorbs waste and odor so effectively.
Nothing else I’ve tried comes close.
I currently use eco-earth brand.


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I just got a big bag of the loose eco-earth from Walmart with free store pick-up it was a pretty good deal. I like it for humidity and EASE of clean up. The only thing is it is a big clingy and you have to brush it off the water bowl when taking it out to clean and refill so you don't get it all over your sink. The snake likes it for borrowing and for pushing it around to build walls in front of hide door or inside hide.

Also like and use aspen as well. My snake pushes aspen around to build walls but doesn't borrow in it as much as eco-earth. Aspen isn't as clingy but it's harder to spot urine spots then what Eco-Earth is.

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Originally Posted by ballpythonsrock2

I just got a big bag of the loose eco-earth from Walmart with free store pick-up it was a pretty good deal. I like it for humidity and EASE of clean up. The only thing is it is a big clingy and you have to brush it off the water bowl when taking it out to clean and refill so you don't get it all over your sink. The snake likes it for borrowing and for pushing it around to build walls in front of hide door or inside hide.

Also like and use aspen as well. My snake pushes aspen around to build walls but doesn't borrow in it as much as eco-earth. Aspen isn't as clingy but it's harder to spot urine spots then what Eco-Earth is.

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I always got the compressed bricks for eco earth when I used it, and I always had to dig it out from under fingernails and such even when just taking a snake out to handle. As soon as I found that the reptile prime was way better about that, I swapped. Still have 2 bricks of eco earth that I'll have to use up at some point...

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A mix of eco earth and orchid bark kept slightly damp is nice ..
You get to use up the two blocks ..


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Pro Coco coconut husk chips. Same exact thing as reptichip and 1/3-1/2 the price.
I use either that or occasionally paper: newspaper or contractors paper from Lowe's.
Aspen on occasion as well, nice during the summer months when I don't need to boost humidity in the enclosures

Eco earth mixed with Forrest floor. Good for keeping humidity levels stable.


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I use coco husk from Pro Coco as well. I've been using coco husk since I forst started keeping reptiles and I love it! In an enclosed tank, it keeps great humidity.

Butcher/Craft paper.


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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

Butcher/Craft paper.


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Now that I have a small breeding business and dozen of snakes, I switched to builders paper, huge rolls 3 feet wide. It’s easy to clean the tubs, and affordable.


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Originally Posted by Luvyna

Forest Floor cypress mulch.

As a random side note I did try to use paper towel for a brief time (exactly one day) in the first few weeks I got my first BP as I thought it might be easier to monitor his health. He absolutely hated the paper towel. He refused to touch it!

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that's funny, when I brought my guy home I had him set up with coco fiber and cypress mulch and he hated it....recoiled and didn't want to be put down. I swapped it out for some paper and he took to it like a duck to water.

After all the positive reviews from people on this forum I took the dive and purchased 6 reptile prime bags for all my snakes to change from Reptichip. It is true that reptile prime holds humidity very well and really absorbs. Funny story, my retired next door neighbor sometimes babysits my 2 year old son and is an avid gardener. She noticed one bag of reptile prime and told me it looks exactly like the stuff she uses for rooting and making her own potting soil. Well the product was almost exactly the same thing. I have been testing this stuff side by side with reptile prime for 2 weeks and the results so far are close as far as I can tell. Aside from the price being higher and the quantity being less for reptile prime (.93 cbft vs 2.5 cbft) the main difference I find is reptile prime is slightly larger, they seem to absorb at the same rate and of course having to soak the block vs it already being loose in the bag. Reptile prime is a great product, I was very happy with the results but price wise for me it does not make sense since so far the results are comparable. I have not revealed the name of this produce because I want to see how it holds up a little longer,if any one wants to check for themselves they can PM me.

Depends....paper towels for geckos. our BPs are on paper towels or chips, colubrids are all on aspen

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mdb730

After all the positive reviews from people on this forum I took the dive and purchased 6 reptile prime bags for all my snakes to change from Reptichip. It is true that reptile prime holds humidity very well and really absorbs. Funny story, my retired next door neighbor sometimes babysits my 2 year old son and is an avid gardener. She noticed one bag of reptile prime and told me it looks exactly like the stuff she uses for rooting and making her own potting soil. Well the product was almost exactly the same thing. I have been testing this stuff side by side with reptile prime for 2 weeks and the results so far are close as far as I can tell. Aside from the price being higher and the quantity being less for reptile prime (.93 cbft vs 2.5 cbft) the main difference I find is reptile prime is slightly larger, they seem to absorb at the same rate and of course having to soak the block vs it already being loose in the bag. Reptile prime is a great product, I was very happy with the results but price wise for me it does not make sense since so far the results are comparable. I have not revealed the name of this produce because I want to see how it holds up a little longer,if any one wants to check for themselves they can PM me.

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Couldn’t the gardening product have pests in it? Aren’t reptile products heat treated?


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by MarkL1561

I do a layer of eco earth topped with coconut fiber. Recently tried reptichip and it’s pretty good but I had to pick plastic out of it. So far the best coconut fiber I’ve gotten is Kritters crumble on Amazon. It’s much higher quality imo softer, no plastic, and looks nicer.


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I've never heard of Kritters Crumble before. I'll have to look it up.

I use Eco earth and it works really well with the humidity needs for my ball python. During shedding I use a bit of sphagnum moss for extra humidity. I also just love the natural look as well.

Aspen = San Diego Gopher snakes, Hognose, Rat snake and Northern BTS
Forest Floor = Ball Python and both my Boa's
Eco Earth = Crestie & Leopard geckos

I was using bioactive, but I didn't seal one of my tanks and ran into other issues, so I went back to Aspen for now, but when my new AP cage comes in I'm going to go back to bioactive.

I went to Lowes and bought organic top soil, Peat moss, Play sand(which I ran boiling water through) and maybe Eco Earth, I'm not 100% sure. But I mixed at a consistency I liked that would hold good and keep decent humidity, took some playing around with.

Currently reptichip mixed with reptile prime. But once I get home from work it’s all changing to indented Kraft paper. $25 for a 18”x300’ roll on amazon. Easier in a way to clean. Snakes won’t drag anything out when being removed from the cage. Don’t have to worry about them eating the substrate as well. Plus my Suriname likes to either poop under it or bury the poop making it next to impossible to know when she goes.

Your local uhaul sells a huge box of Kraft paper for 9.99 that's 1/3rd the price of amazon.

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I use eco-earth and reptichip, about a 50/50 mixture

I mostly use the paper tub liners for my racks with the pre cut holes. In the winter i use a combination of both repitchip and liners due to the lack of humidity in the winter.