Bedding & Caves

[ReMiXeDg]

Hi all, Once again I have some few questions. This time regarding Bedding & Hiding Spots for my Ball Pythons...

1. What is the best cheap affordable bedding that I can use. This blue stuff that I have is alright, I mean Ill use it but I want to use the best of the best affordable stuff and something that would look good, and keep humidity levels good..

2. As for a hiding spot, Could I easily use a colored container or a shoe box for now till I get something for them or is there another thing I could use that is house hold item?

thanks.

[wolfy-hound]

I use aspen shred(shavings) which is cheap and available at places like Petsmart or TractorSupply. You'll get a ginormous block of compressed shavings for like... $10?

Hide spots can easily be the cheapo plastic storage containers with a hole cut/burned into it that's big enough for the widest part of the snake. Just get a solid color container with a lid, cut the entrance in the side or bottom, turn it upside down and blamo, cheap easy hide. You can also use plastic bowls, turned upside down as well, it doesn't have to be fully contained.

If the snake is smaller still, you can also use things like the flowerpot dishes(they go underneath a pot to catch drips?).

Snakes don't need fancy, they couldn't care less if the hide spot cost you $20 or $0.20. They just want a tight small dark spot to coil up in.

I've even used cardboard boxes of various sizes, but they pretty much have to be thrown out every week or so as they get soiled. The plastic containers can be washed as needed.

[Kinra]

1. What is the best cheap affordable bedding that I can use. This blue stuff that I have is alright, I mean Ill use it but I want to use the best of the best affordable stuff and something that would look good, and keep humidity levels good..

If you are looking for cheap, news paper works just fine. If you are looking for something that will hold humidity really well you want to go with Cypress. Aspen is a pretty popular substrate as well and tends to be cheaper than Cypress.

2. As for a hiding spot, Could I easily use a colored container or a shoe box for now till I get something for them or is there another thing I could use that is house hold item?

Show boxes work fine. I use tupperware containers with holes cut into them. I paint them using no toxic acrylic paint that I let air dry for a few days. If you make hides out of tupperware make sure you melt the edges where you cut so your BPs don't cut themsleves.

Snakes don't really care about how things look they just want a nice place to hide, so however to choose to set things up is completely up to you. In my experience my snakes are just as happy hiding in home made hides as they are in store bought ones that cost 10-20 times as much.

[ReMiXeDg]

Im going to go with the home made hides, then when I get money to invest in them I'll get something fancy..

As for the bedding I looked up online and I'm going to go with Aspen, its only $10 at my local pet shop <3

[oppie2005]

i use aspen. i tried using the "eco carpet" stuff, i dont recommend using it. you cant just "spot clean" it during the week as well as you can with aspen or cypress.

[ReMiXeDg]

Thanks for the reply. eco carpet, I never heard about that . I am going to look into that.

[Simplex]

X2 on the hide ideas.. I use the coconut coif.. Its brands are beats peat and bed a beast i belive.. Its. Lil time consuming to get right but dirt cheap. 10 bucks here in canada for a brick that expands to 3cf (big as a bag of peat moss) what i like about it is the snakes movement compresses it down.. So its very very easy to spot clean. It also holds humidy very well

[Anna.Sitarski]

I am a big fan of good quality paper towels, soft, hold humidity and easy to clean and fairly cheap.

[sho220]

Hides can be made of almost anything...