Thanks for the heads up about the paper towel. I have never had an incident but I will keep an eye out.

The reason I don't use newspaper is because its too much trouble for me to get free newspaper. Also my snakes have a habit of tipping their water dishes and it doesn't absorb well. Paper towels work a bit better in this department, but I find them to be so wasteful. Currently I go through about a 1.5-2 rolls per week, which isn't expensive (I get a 6 pack of rolls for about $5-6, but I just find myself with a lot of paper towels in my trash. If I could find a reusable bedding that I could simply clean and put back in, that would be a lot better. I would assume they would be similar to cloth diapers. Those get peed and pooped on all the time, yet they are washed over and over and reused. Wouldn't it work the same for something that only gets pooped on once a week?

Perhaps I'll try it for a few weeks and post my results with it here.