Pictures of Kaa in early shed... new tank setup

[ember]

I have changed his substrate from bed-a-beast style coconut compress to pine shavings. He has a nice UTH on the side with the "bell" hide (the same side that has a light). I am keeping up with humidity, and discovered that Kaa really likes a super-warm mist bath at times (he will comes out and enjoy). He is the only snake I have ever had that I will often see drinking from his water dish. He yawns quite a bit, too. He has serious personality.

In these photos, he is ready to eat my camera. Today is feedin' day, and he seems to know it. He is in early shedding right now.

[SatanicIntention]

PLEASE get him OFF of the pine as soon as humanly possible. It can cause irreversible lung and kidney damage from the oils in the shavings.

Pine or cedar should never be used as the oils produced by the shavings are caustic and cause alot of internal problems. Use aspen, bed-a-beast, cypress mulch, newspaper, paper towels, small children, ANYTHING(except for carpet, it's just gross all around). You are causing your snake harm keeping him on that bedding. Please change it immediately.

[ember]

I am almost certain that it is aspen, and I just had the wrong word in mind when I typed it out. I got the substrate as recommended by a worker in the petstore specifically asking for snake bedding. I have since thrown out the package, but I am also certain that it is aspen and I just had it all mixed up in my mind.

[SatanicIntention]

Is the bedding yellowish or is it more white? Looks pretty floofy to be aspen.

[ember]

White (but a tad yellowish once misted and under the light), but white and flat-ish (not fluffy-ish). I have a fabric under it (light table cloth material - I have a lot of it and can just throw it away when cleaning tanks) that may be adding to/affecting the appearance? These are hardly words, I know, but it is the best I can do for explaining!

No really, I am just about certain I had it wrong. You know "avoid ceder and pine" was on my mind when looking to change substrate, so when writing about it part of the mantra came out instead of the correct word.

[ZEKESMOM]

I hope you are right because that looks like pine shavings from the pics.

[ember]

I am almost sure that it is not, but I am compelled to change it now anyway. Why would they sell pine shavings with the reptile things as a substrate? I guess I am going to need to go to the petstore tomorrow and find the same darn bag and check it.

[recycling goddess]

ah good. cause that's pretty important. trusting people who work in petstores isn't a good idea. some know their stuff... other's just make it up as they go along.

[ember]

I have always used the beats peat type coconut compress as a substrate for snakes and it has been great. I joined a different forum recently that FREAKED OUT when I posted photos, and I guess that bed-a-beast is liken to snake abuse. I had no clue. That was the type of substrate my stepdad used all through my childhood for snakes, and I really liked it. Taking the strong advice posted, I made the change to (what I HOPE is) aspen, because I certainly don't want to HURT my snakes in any way.

I have read articles against newspaper (and paper towel), and have also been told that reptile carpets are bacteria and pathogen holding, even if bleached.

WHAT THE HELL SHOULD I KEEP MY SNAKES ON?! I am becoming really worried about this! Did I just take them from bad and stick them on worse? Humph...

[SatanicIntention]

I'd pick the small children, much more readily available, not to mention they are very absorbant.

Just kidding of course!

I keep all of mine on newspaper(it is printed with soy/vegetable inks, so no harm to anything really), and the two corns, who have found homes, are kept on a bit of aspen(they like to burrow in it).

Bed-A-Beast is fine as long as it is cleaned out regularly when there is a bowel movement or they urinate.

I've used cypress mulch from Home Depot as well, and it works just fine. Same as above though, needs to be cleaned regularly. I usually baked it as it always came wet. I think a HUGE bag of the stuff was around $3.

Aspen is good too, but if it gets wet it needs to be changed. Mold happens pretty readily with it.

And you're definitely right about the carpet, it tends to get gross very quickly. Think about a kitchen sponge, how it starts to smell nasty even if you wash it in bleach. The carpet also can rough up their belly scales and make them ragged.

Anywho! Hope that helped!