Starting to Hate Reptichip

[N8GotBalls]

I have been keeping ball pythons for a few years now and have used Reptichip from the start. I know it comes highly reviewed and a lot of Keepers swear by it. However I have been struggling to keep humidity down with it. I quickly don't the reptichip to expand it. Then I lay it out in the sun. The last few times I have shoveled it around for 6 to 8 hours until it looked completely dry. But still when I put it in my tubs the fronts continuously get wet. The reptichip will look dry throughout the rest of the tub except for in the front there. The humidity will range from 70 to 90% 70 being the standard unless a water bowl gets pushed around then the humidity will Spike to the 90% sometimes even as high as 100%.

I always assume this was fine considering I see a lot of Keepers with the front of the bins all covered in parcipitation.

Well I just opened up a bin, went to spot clean bin and she started hissing as normal, only this time blowing bubbles when she hissed. So this of course has me freaked out I immediately removed all reptichip changed to paper towel and increased temp a few degrees.

Has anyone else had any problems with the reptichip holding too much humidity no matter what is done to dry it out. I have found spots of mold before as well of course.

[SDA]

Reptile Prime. It's the new hotness.

[zina10]

Yup, thats precisely why I like Reptile Prime. It arrives DRY and "I" control humidity through misting

That plus I hated to store the huge mess of wet Repti Chip, having to turn it daily to try to hurry it drying out, ugh. Plus the bigger and different colored pieces made it harder to figure out if pieces were simply darker or part of the urine soaked in..

[Sauzo]

I went back to aspen. My snakes thrived on it for years and they seem to actually like it better. With the Reptichips, they would push it aside and lay on the cage floor. With the aspen they lay on top of it. Also for my retic, his liquid would soak through and dry on the cage bottom. With the aspen, her piss just soaks into the aspen and it gets darker so its easy to spot clean. And same with poops. Also i have no issue keeping 70% humidity with aspen which was the main reason i switched to Reptichips anyways. One thing Reptichips has is it's cheap compared to aspen as Bean Farm doesnt carry the 7.5 cu ft bales anymore which i could pick up locally. Now i have to shell out for 24 qt bags of Zoo Med aspen. Stuff is nice but expensive.

[SDA]

Sauzo, look into this for your retic. Insanely cheap and might be even better for absorption. Not something I would say is recommended for ball pythons but for bigger messier snakes I would assume it is top notch. I mean after all this is used for horses and we all know about what race horses pee like

Edit: Actually not sure one way or the other if it would work for ball pythons as it can get kind of damp and hold moisture a bit but honestly never tried it.

http://hemp-solutions.org/animal-bedding/

[Sauzo]

Sauzo, look into this for your retic. Insanely cheap and might be even better for absorption. Not something I would say is recommended for ball pythons but for bigger messier snakes I would assume it is top notch. I mean after all this is used for horses and we all know about what race horses pee like

http://hemp-solutions.org/animal-bedding/

Interesting. I might give it a try but atm I'm just sticking with the Zoo Med aspen. It's more expensive by far but Caesar as well as the gang love the stuff. The babies all dig around in it at night popping their heads up and then tunneling again like little Loch Ness monsters lol. Plus Caesar seems to stretch out more and overall just seems happier although that might just be me. Regardless of what I've used for him, he soaks the stuff in 1-1.5 months anyways, so i have the change it lol. I just order about 10 24 qt bags of the Zoo Med stuff every couple months and it keeps everyone happy. Plus honestly, i prefer the smell of the aspen much more. The boas aspen smells nice and aspeny(?) for a couple months. Caesar's start to stink after a month haha. Thanks though and always awesome to have other options available.

[zina10]

I used to get Aspen in huge bags with free or cheap shipping. Used to be called Harlan or something...Will see if I can find you a link..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sauzo]

I used to get Aspen in huge bags with free or cheap shipping. Used to be called Harlan or something...Will see if I can find you a link..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tekland? Yeah they arent doing it anymore. I used to get American Excelsior but they also arent doing it.


Seems the only stuff i can find now in bulk is the Kaytee stuff which i have heard is dusty and not very finely shredded. The best stuff I've found so far is the Zoo Med stuff which is very soft and finely shredded. It's not super dusty but it does have some dust like any wood product. Doesn't seem to be anymore though really than the Reptichips. I just mist the aspen down once a week and it keeps everything great.

[zina10]

Look what I found !

Granted, not the price I used to pay, but its supposed to be the same stuff as Teklan and the bag is almost double what the Teklan was.

At this link, you get free shipping over $100. So I added 3 bags into my cart to get over $100. There is a "oversize and handling" fee of $5.

After inserting my zip code it showed FREE SHIPPING GROUND.

So...$112 for 24 cu.ft. delivered. ($4 something per cubic foot)

Not bad at all but...you have to store that ! That's a lot

[hollowlaughter]

I use hemp. Works fine. Could be a bit better about holding humidity but that may just be the woes of a tank speaking, will be making my final verdict after the holiday upgrades he's getting.

He loves burrowing into it but it tends to flatten out like a pancake under an adult.

However, for things like urine, does well soaking that up.