Gina the Rio Bravo Pokigron Suriname progression thread

[Sauzo]

Alright, well I've decided to try another substrate!! Just ordered 4 blocks of the Plant It stuff. Gonna see how the little boas like it. Eco Earth works good but my god, Rosey shoves the stuff over the litter dam and it is a pain in the tracks lol. They need to just create a substrate that somehow has the best of all the substrates lol. Guess I'll let you all know how it compares to ReptiChips. I'll just have to pick the lesser of two evils, Rosey burying poops and pees or filling her door tracks lol. If she wasn't such a friendly and 'social' snake, I'd put her butt on newspaper lol

[Sauzo]

Ok, Eco Earth officially SUCKS again!!! At least for my baby snakes. Today I lifted Gina's hide to check on her and she had a mouthful of Eco Earth again!!. I believe what happened was the Eco Earth over top of the flexwatt gets warm, then it releases steam which gets trapped inside the warm side hide and forms to a really think layer of condensation. Well I think Gina got some of that condensation on her mouth and then it picked up the EE while she was making her little nest. Then she tried to rub it off on the wet sides of the hide and picked up more and it just snowballed. Anyways, I had to clean her mouth out with a Q-tip and a spray bottle of water. Basically had to wash it out of her mouth. She wasn't too thrilled about it but she was happy to take her hopper mouse lol and look for seconds lol. I noticed the same with Rango but he just avoids the warm hide if it is filled with condensation.

So I ended up going back to aspen. I used it on all of my big snakes since they were babies and it worked well and they are all big fat slugs now lol. I'll probably end up using the Plant IT stuff on my big snakes and using aspen on Luna, Rango and Gina and probably Dottie as well as she doesn't need that high of humidity and she seemed to like aspen too.

So words of wisdom, if you use Eco Earth, make sure your hides have air holes in the top to vent out the steam/condensation. I'm using RBI hides btw.

Anyways, here's a couple older picks of her exploring at night.

[cletus]

I've been having good luck with Reptichip. My boa also goes in her water bowl everytime. Without fail. It's been easy to keep her enclosure clean.

[Sauzo]

Yeah, I used ReptiChips for awhile. Going with the Plant IT stuff which is the same stuff but half the price for my retic and big boas. The babies and BP are going to aspen as I've had years of luck with it.

[Gio]

I mix E/E with cypress. I also use repti chips and bark. All OK with me.
Gina is a favorite of mine here.

[Sauzo]

Thanks. She is so tolerant too. She sat there while I cleaned her mouth out. She did hiss once though when I lifted the blanket on the bed to check on her lol. She was all relaxed.

After I recovered her, she poked her snoot out and sat there while I cleaned and changed her substrate. Also did it for Rango too and put him on the other side of the bed under the blanket. Of course he decided to explore lol.

I raised al my snakes on aspen so figure I'll stick to it for the babies until they get bigger. Then I'll probably switch them to ReptiChips too. They love the aspen though. Rango spent the day burrowing all over haha. Then I fed him his mouse and he burrowed to the front of the cage and laid his head on the litter dam haha.

Poor Gina has been through a war here with eating EE and now getting a mouthful from the too wet of hide. She seems to like the aspen too. Made a little nest on the warm side with just her head at the door lol.

[BR8080]

Glad to hear she ate after going through a mouthwash.

I use the cypress mulch now but I'm switching to Herptopia coco husk once the T10's are ready (assembled and airing out now, and waiting til Monday to talk with Ali about damaged top by FedEx..UGH).

Hopefully it works out, if not, I'll just switch back.

[Sauzo]

Glad to hear she ate after going through a mouthwash.

I use the cypress mulch now but I'm switching to Herptopia coco husk once the T10's are ready (assembled and airing out now, and waiting til Monday to talk with Ali about damaged top by FedEx..UGH).

Hopefully it works out, if not, I'll just switch back.

Stay away from it if its like Eco Earth!!! I hated Eco Earth years ago. Then I gave it a shot again and it was awesome....for like a week or so lol. Now it once again sucks!! On a side note, Gina and Rango LOVE aspen. Rango is making tunnels all over and Gina is exploring every inch of the cage looking at the aspen lol.

[Sauzo]

I think Gina needs to be upsized on her food. She was on medium mice when I got her but I fed her hoppers just to get he pumps primed. I think she wants more lol. And I think she is happy her mouth isn't filled with Eco Earth. She is playing all over in the aspen haha. Here's a couple pics of her looking at me when I was pointing the camera at her haha. She is such a trooper. You would think after being in a new house and then having your mouth washed out twice for being filled with Eco Earth would dampen your spirits. But nope, Gina is just the super curious, mellow little girl. She's totally a mini Rosey lol.

[Sauzo]

Gina out for hang out time before feeding tomorrow. She's such a tiny worm.