Trying out a new substrate...Herptopia

[zina10]

That stuff would drive me to the poor house in an instant. If I remember correctly, it took me 48 quarts to do 1 of my T10s. Multiply that 6 times and that would be 6 bags per cleaning I would need and I tend to throw out substrate every month or so anyways. Right now I'm using ReptiChips and I like it. I actually like the bigger chunks as it doesn't allow my bigger snakes to pack the substrate down which combined with heat from flexwatt and you got mold galore. Stuff looks better than Eco Earth though.

Yes, you would need quite a bit more then I do

I'm still hopeful the price will be more economical with larger sized bags and/or shipping discounts. I wish a store nearby would sell it, or perhaps I can buy at a reptile show.

When I had my big Neodesha 4 ft cages, I used to use Eco Earth. Perhaps it was a different brand name, but it came in those "bricks" you had to add water to. And it was fine, like dirt. The big Ball Pythons did tend to pack it down when it was "moist" but I never had mold grow on it. Not even in the Brazilian Rainbow Boa cage, which had to be kept very humid. Maybe its just certain brands, though ? Or my snakes weren't big enough.

The Herptopia is very different from that, though. While its finer then Reptichip it doesn't compact easily. It stays "fluffy" for lack of better words. I tried to push it down and it keeps "springing" up. So far I like it better then Reptichip, but that is because it seems to work better for me with the tubs I have. I don't have "holes" in my tubs so I don't want substrate that is even a little wet before putting it in. I need dry substrate and it takes me up to 10 days of daily turning and mixing the reptichips in the big rubbermaid before its dry enough to use. Just annoying, plus I don't like the huge chips. If they could be just a little smaller..

Since I still have a whole bunch of Reptichip I will continue to use that for my bigger display cage. The additional humidity dissipates faster and easier in the cage then in the tubs, so it works quite well.

My collection is fairly small, so price is not as critical for me as it is for some. But I don't want to over pay , either. If I end up liking this substrate as much as I think I will, I want to see at least a shipping discount and bigger bags before I'll make the switch.

I will update this thread with any pros and cons as time goes by