Substrate...blah...

[Sauzo]

Does it matter if it says "kiln dried" or would any ole' pine will do?

I will admit that I've avoided pine simply because of people saying that it is toxic etc. Since a lot on this forum have used it for decades I think it must be safe for snakes. Do you know if it is only snakes or is pine safe for other reptiles as well?

Also, all the pine I find in these parts available in bulk are huge pieces, meant for horses. I wonder if that is ok or not?

You want kiln dried as that dries out all the oils in the pine which is what is harmful to reptiles. As for larger pieces, I would imagine it would be fine but I'm not sure how much babies would enjoy it, really just depends how big it actually is. If its like the size of small animal bedding which is more or less larger shavings, then it should be fine but if it is actually chunks of wood like if you were cutting a tree down with an axe, I would probably skip that size stuff. I personally would just stick to aspen as that stuff is easy to find and most of it is in small animal size shavings or double milled reptile grade.