Repti bark...snake friendly?

[steelsack]

Taking a moment from basement cage construction to ponder substrate. Thinking I'll go with cypress mulch (baked for mite-exploding goodness) but was tempted to try repti bark. Floyd's getting bigger and bigger so I'm working on a new pad for him and I'm trying for a natural vibe. Making a fake rock wall on the back, recessing the ole waterin hole, coupla fake plants, and so on. Alas, I shall hang up the astroturf 'cause it just won't "bring the room together, man".
Here's a repti bark link...http://www.petco.com/product_info.as...ctrt0001021805
I noticed it's made from fir bark. They also do not list pythons or boas in thier usage list. Fir's look a lot like a pine. Now we know pine is not cool, so would the fir not be good either? Or is it different to use the bark and not the wood? Or is it a totally different tree and doesn't contain the oils and such that pine does? I see a lot of folks using it and I like how it looks, but "Iz it safe"?

[steelsack]

Okay, I do see tree boas in there. Missed it the first time I read.
But the tree boa won't actually be on the ground much......

[Kara]

I personally can't stand this stuff - big chunks of bark aren't a very absorbent substrate.

I'd honestly say go to Home Depot & look for a double-milled (or just plain shredded) cypress mulch. It's much finer in composition & tends to hold humidity better as well.

If you're worried about bugs, just bake it in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 until golden brown and bubbly, and the juices run clear when pierced with a fork...

Wait. Wrong recipe.

Oven for 20 min at 400 (heck, even 300 would work), or just blast it with Provent-A-Mite & let it sit for a day before you use it.



K~

P.S. @ Home Depot mulch is usually $4 for 3 cubic feet. MUCH cheaper!

[steelsack]

Yeah, have used cypress before and liked it fine. Once in a while I like to break character and try something new, but need to know everything about it first, lol. Do you bake that hot? I usually bake stuff at 250 for 30 minutes. Water boils around 225 to 230 depending on elevation, and if water boils, blood and yummy body juices will too. I'd be afraid to hit 350 as things start to get smokey at high temps, lol.

[Jeanne]

I have used repti bark for many years with no problem. Fir does not contain the same types of oils and whatnot that pine has.

[Kara]

Whoa...I am definitely spending too much time in the kitchen lately.

That should have read 250-300...400 is me slaving over last night's recipe.

I NEED SLEEP!

K~

[Cody]

While on the topic of substrates(sorry if I'm hijacking your thread ), I just recently grabbed a big bag of aspen mulch while at the grocery store the other day, and finally threw out the reptibark I've been using for...well since August of last year when I got Pelota. Anyway, the aspen looks nice, and Pelota seems to like it. But I was wondering..I've heard stuff about aspen and how it molds easily. Is this true? How often should I throw it out and replace it with fresh stuff? Which do you find better? Cypress mulch, or aspen? Both are in the same price range, so if one is better than the other I'll go get that, lol.

As for reptibark, I used it for 7 months, same bag. I just soaked it in hot water once in a while to clean it out(as it said on the package). It seemed pretty absorbant, and was easy to spot urates and bm's on. Had no odor except a slight woodsy smell(like a forest...mmm), and I really had no negative experience with it, except it can be a bit dusty when you first use it from the package, so it's good to give it a rinse before using it. The only thing that turns me off of it is the price. I paid 10 bucks for a bag of it, and the bag was enough to put a 1 inch layer in a 20 gallon tank, and have a handful left over to throw in once in a while to replace what's scooped out with bm's.

Yay for long posts...

[latesam]

cyprus mulch seems like the way to go if you don't mind the baking in the oven thing. I am going to do that cause the reptibark stuff WAAAAY to expensive. It can't be much more of a hassle then soaking that reptibark crap.

[steelsack]

Well after some searching I see that nice chunky fir bark mulch can be purchased just as easily as cypress. Cypress is nice, it's just kind of shredded as opposed to the fir being chunks of bark. The repti bark is quite pricey, it would take me like 50 bucks to get as much as I need of the brand name stuff and that's just too costly for what is obtainable from nurseries and home depot type stores at like 4 or 5 bucks per HUGE bag. Have heard mite stories from repti bark as well as cypress and such so boiling would need to be done no matter what product someone went with. I prefer to feed in the cage personally, so larger chunky substrate that's near impossible to ingest is what I'll need. I'll post results on whatever I go with.
Last big purchase comming up this week....80 bucks worth of plexiglass, then I'll post some picks of my latest creation.

[Smynx]

Steelsack, if you wouldn't mind, would you post your substrate results in the "reviews" section of the website?

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules.php?name=Reviews