substrate from garden center?

i know ive read on here before that you can get mulch and bark from the garden center much cheaper than from pet shops. but after doing a few searches i came up with nothing.

what types of bark or mulch should i look for at lowes, home depot, etc?

Depends on what kind of snake, I also wouldn't recommend the mulch from them or any for that matter. I bought a bag of cypress mulch from walmart, put it in the tank, misted it, was setting up for my snake, and I noticed some bugs crawling around in it. I guess it's all personal preference but I would spend the extra dollar or two on the stuff specified for pets, like T-rex cypress mulch is double milled, so its smaller, and less chance of it having trash in it, also the cypress mulch I got from walmart seemed to had some small pieces of glass? Possibly just really hard plastic, but either way.

lol it sounds like walmart is just going around to parks and filling up their bags with mulch!

hmmm....that gives me an idea...:D

I would just stick with purchasing your substrate online.

I get aspen from tractor supply co. really cheap. I don't think I've heard of anyone getting mulch and using it as substrate, seems kind of dirty to me. They don't care much about anything being in it because it's supposed go in the ground...

A lot of people use cypress mulch, you just get the ones for Reptiles.

You can always either bake the cypress mulch or freeze it before use. The stuff from Home Depot tends to be packed very wet anyways so you need to deal with that before it goes into a snake enclosure. I've been searching myself for double milled cypress but it's a lot harder to find and a lot more expensive.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

You can always either bake the cypress mulch or freeze it before use. The stuff from Home Depot tends to be packed very wet anyways so you need to deal with that before it goes into a snake enclosure. I've been searching myself for double milled cypress but it's a lot harder to find and a lot more expensive.

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You're looking for Cypress Mulch by T-Rex, It's not really expensive and it's double milled, Its smaller pieces, looks a lot better then regular cypress mulch. If you want a picture of what it looks like send me a PM.

i got no float cypress mulch from lowes. it is milled to a smaller size than normal cypress....not sure if its double milled or not.

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Originally Posted by Neal

You're looking for Cypress Mulch by T-Rex, It's not really expensive and it's double milled, Its smaller pieces, looks a lot better then regular cypress mulch. If you want a picture of what it looks like send me a PM.

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buddy, give it up already. :rolleyes: i didnt start this thread to have someone preach about what i should or shouldnt be using. you have made 4 posts and they all say the same damn thing. you want to send me some money to buy the overpriced bark from a pet shop?

the fact is pet shops sell the exact same thing you can get at other places for much higher prices. a perfect example would be wood shavings. goto a farm supply store and its $6 for a big bag. goto a pet shop and its $10 for half the amount of shavings. the same is likely true for bark substrate. a bag of bark is $40 at a pet shop. the same thing is likely $15 at a garden center, if that. i just needed to know what type of bark to get.

i dont like the look of aspen so i wont be using that ;)

no one mentioned but you do not want the mulch that is blended.

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Originally Posted by ch312

buddy, give it up already. :rolleyes: i didnt start this thread to have someone preach about what i should or shouldnt be using. you have made 4 posts and they all say the same damn thing. you want to send me some money to buy the overpriced bark from a pet shop?

the fact is pet shops sell the exact same thing you can get at other places for much higher prices. a perfect example would be wood shavings. goto a farm supply store and its $6 for a big bag. goto a pet shop and its $10 for half the amount of shavings. the same is likely true for bark substrate. a bag of bark is $40 at a pet shop. the same thing is likely $15 at a garden center, if that. i just needed to know what type of bark to get.

i dont like the look of aspen so i wont be using that ;)

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Excuse me but if you look at Neal's post he quoted mine and was replying directly to my comment about not being able to find double milled cypress. I don't get why you need to be rude and accuse him of "preaching". You asked a question, people respond to it and that post in particular wasn't even in direct response to you, but rather to me.

It is true that farm stores sell things at a generally cheaper cost than most pet stores, however, there are issues of quality occasionally and in this case what you can buy from Home Depot or TSC as far as cypress mulch is NOT the same as the product from T-Rex that Neal recommended.

Neal thanks for that information. I found it by googling and will look into it's cost effectiveness with my collection. :)

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Originally Posted by ch312

buddy, give it up already. :rolleyes: i didnt start this thread to have someone preach about what i should or shouldnt be using. you have made 4 posts and they all say the same damn thing. you want to send me some money to buy the overpriced bark from a pet shop?

the fact is pet shops sell the exact same thing you can get at other places for much higher prices. a perfect example would be wood shavings. goto a farm supply store and its $6 for a big bag. goto a pet shop and its $10 for half the amount of shavings. the same is likely true for bark substrate. a bag of bark is $40 at a pet shop. the same thing is likely $15 at a garden center, if that. i just needed to know what type of bark to get.

i dont like the look of aspen so i wont be using that ;)

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Okay, say it with me Gooosfraaabaaahh :rofl: seriously, if you were not looking for opinions, you should have been more selective about how you worded the title. As it stands, it is in question form to the other members, if they think it is suitable as a substrate or if they might use something else instead. That is they way I interpret the title and I think Neal feels very strong that you may cause your pet some possible health issues and is maybe trying to save you some money in the long run. Just my :2cent: worth though, the greatest thing about our country is the ability to do whatever you want too. Have a great day :D