Originally Posted by zina10
Honestly, when it came to smell and mess I actually found paper to be the worst offender.
The snakes have quite a bit of liquid pee and it would soak all over the paper and sometimes the snake sat on that soaked paper. And the smell..ugh. While I check several times the day, sometimes they eliminate at night or when I'm not home. By the time I got to it I could smell it throughout the room. Since I do not have a dedicated "reptile room" this was a problem.
Esp. since it takes a while for that odor to dissipate after cleaning. (Even after wiping down the snake that sat on the soaked paper)
Aspen wasn't much better. While it soaked up more of the mess, it didn't do great with it, and it still smelled pretty bad. Plus I had to remove a LOT of the aspen to get the enclosure truly clean.
Right now I use Reptile Prime, a sort of coco substrate (not chunky like ReptiChip nor dusty or superfine). It actually works great! First of all, there is no more smell in the room. I have to open the enclosure to find a mess by sight, not by smell...lol. Not a problem for me, because I check daily. It also soaks up the mess very well, so it stays contained in a small area. What I do is move the clean substrate away from the soiled area, making sure all soiled stuff stays in one spot. I then scoop up the dirty substrate with paper towels. Then I wipe that area with a paper towel that I sprayed some F10 on, push the clean substrate back over the spot, done. If need be, add more clean substrate to the enclosure. Quick and easy.
I'm not going trough the substrate very fast, like I did with Aspen. I have had no need to do an entire "dump and clean" because its easy to clean thoroughly without contaminating the clean substrate. Always smells good and looks good. I'm sold on that stuff.
You detect no odor when using Reptiprime? I'm a long time Aspen user. Any cons to using Reptiprime or wish something was better about it? I'm debating on switching.
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