Poll: feeding and substrate

[Mike]

ive heard aspen molds more easily. have you noticed this? how often do you change out the bark?

IMO, loose substrate is an unecessary pain in the butt. I use newspaper or paper towels and all of my snakes eat flawlessly (except for my 2 year old male BP who is still on his winter fast). I just use a few layers of newspaper and the snakes hide under those.

[JLC]

That's really interesting, Judy. What kind of substrate was in the seperate container that you fed him in?

The feeding container is/was a sterilite box that I would put newspaper down in. He would go right under the newspaper and stay there, so I started putting the f/t mice UNDER the paper and he ate just great that way for months. When the temps dropped, he stopped eating. I've long since gotten the temps back up, but haven't been able to tempt him with a mouscicle since.

That is completely normal behavior for ball pythons. My male has been off feed since Oct. When it starts getting cold, they just stop eating sometimes.

[JLC]

That is completely normal behavior for ball pythons. My male has been off feed since Oct. When it starts getting cold, they just stop eating sometimes.

Yeah, I know. Only problem is, mine isn't a nice fat bp...but a lean little gopher snake. Even after all this time, though, he doesn't look TOO skinny or anything. He still feels and acts healthy...but I'm getting more and more worried.

[steelsack]

Just picked up a new substrate to try out. It's a bag of super crushed walnut shells designed for reptiles. The grains are a little bigger than sand. The humidity holds the same, which was my main concern, and is supposed to be harmless in case of accidental ingestion. Not a concern to me as I feed in a feed box with astroturf as substrate.
Anybody use this stuff? Cleanup is nice, because you can just scoop out waste kitty litter style. Also added some fake vines and covered the back wall and one side wall of the tank with aquarium background paper. Xaero has a whole new attitude! He grooves on the walnut, and feels MUCH more relaxed with some leafy cover.

[Smynx]

Well so far the results are inconclusive and may just reflect what substrates people are using in general. I guess to be sure, we would have to post another poll to find out what substrates people are using, regardless of whether they have ever had feeding problems with their snakes. Does anyone know if that has already been done? I did a quick search and did not find any polls on the matter.

[Smulkin]

must . . . have . . . more sample . . . data (collapses)

Great response guys - thanks for taking the time.

Yeah there are SO many variables involved - I had decided to focus on 3 prime bits of data and this was the first. I had also considered Time of Day (rather hours since light cycle switched on) and Temp (ambient not prey) as possible factors. Smynx is the analytical powerhouse in the fambly - I am just the deflicted guy

Oh hey cool you updated the signature - now I can copy and paste it into my own