That's it; going back to cypress...

[Ginevive]

I liked aspen at first, but now it is really irritating me. My snakes all seem to push it out of the way, and end up directly on the glass above the heating element. I don't want any burns so I plan on buying some bags of Cyp and going back to it. I always have trouble getting it in the off-gardening season, so I plan on stocking up and throwing some extra bags in the basement; how do you other aspen-users cope?

[tigerlily]

You shouldn't have to worry about burns, as long as you have the heating element on a thermostat. I've finally ditched my aspen for just plain ole newspaper. The hamster gets the aspen now. lol. I got tired of having to fluff it, and well. It's more economical too.

[frankykeno]

I recently, like Christie, went from aspen to newspaper. I liked the look of the aspen but quite honestly the constant cleaning up of aspen spills wasn't much fun and unfortunately our snake room is carpeted (blech). I've also found that the tub humidity is much easier to control in the summer heat with newspaper.

If you like aspen but find the heavier cypress better Gin you might try what we use for the BCI's. We mix their substrate about half shredded aspen, half cypress mulch (which I bake as our local cypress mulch tends to be very damp). Makes a nice mix with the softness of the aspen but the heavier cypress holding things more in place (looking kinda nice too). The bigger BCI does mounded it up a bit but much less than pure aspen would do.

[new2BP]

i used to use apen. But recently switched back to old towels. just so much easier to clean after a poo or on the scheduled clean. just take out and replace with a clean one. i still have my apen though, i am sure i'll use it again.

[cassandra]

We use aspen on top of repti-carpet; the t-stat probes are poke through holes in the carpet, so they stay exactly where we want them and the carpet holds the aspen "in place". Neither of our girls have burrowed so far, so we've had no problems with them getting too close to the UTH or under the carpet.

But I hear the lament of aspen "getting" everywhere...=P

[Razaiel]

After being a long-term fan of repti-bark followed by aspen, I ditched it for the old favorite here, newspaper with paper towels on top (looks better than newspaper on top). Cleaning's a breeze now.