Hey I live in the salem area of oregon. I have a fast growing collection of snakes especially ball pythons. I currently keep them on Coconut fiber stuff, like eco earth, the stuff that expands when you put it in water. I like it for the most part but I am starting to have some serious problems with it. My main problem is that when I feed the balls, I feed them I their cages. It is where they are comfortable and won't eat out of their cages.
So since I feed them in their cages they are starting to get the substrate in their mouths. This was a serious problem; today the substrate was caked in one of my balls mouths and he couldn't breath, he actually stopped moving and breath, so i grabbed him out of his cage and had to rise out his mouth with water. He is fine now but I scared the hell out of me. As you can see there is clearly a problem and I want to switch to a new substrate ASAP. I don't want to use newspaper or aspen, it holds moisture horribly (I keep my tanks at around 50% humidity) and I'm not a big fan of either. Newspaper can dye the snakes bellies, and aspen can mold if you aren't carefully.
So I need something that isn't pet store brand that doesn't cost a lot, and that I can get big quantities of locally. I have heard of cypress and eucalyptus mulch, they hold moisture well and are fairly cheap. The problem is I can't find it here locally at all, ever where I have called doesn't have it, i have tired asking if they can order it and most places can't, or i have to buy a whole plate which i don't need.
SO does anyone I the area have any ideas, suggestions, comments, anything that could help me???? I would really like to switch to a new substrate soon so please let me know if you have any ideas on good cheapish substrates that hold moisture well. Thanks in advance