Substrate - Repti Bark???

[Lioness]

ok..so i have repti bark as substrate for Fendi's enclosure..and I keep the enclosure in my office so its kind of hard to bring it up and down to empty it out and put fresh bark in it. I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions to different substrate that was easy to maintain, was aesthetically pleasing, and smelled fresh??

[Kilo]

Calcium Sand! Good for up to 6 months... use a poop sifter for daily spot checking.

[Lioness]

Calcium Sand! Good for up to 6 months... use a poop sifter for daily spot checking.

SAND?! ... from what i've heard and learned.. sand is really bad for most snakes..

[Smulkin]

I would avoid sand - might be good for arid species - but BP's are hardly that. Same for the ground walnut shells (Desert Blend works ok for our Sudanese plateds but leeches any moisture right outta the air).

[Lioness]

so im back to square one.. i knew sand wouldnt work becauses ive heard too many horror stories. any other suggestions??

[Smulkin]

Well, my wife STILL uses aspen shavings and that has worked very well for her. It is very light colored compared to the bark substrates and in it's favor that helps in eyeballing where some spot-cleaning needs done.

[JLC]

Seems to me like if you're using a glass tank and want "pretty" substrate, then no matter what you use, its going to involve regular cleaning and changing...which means lugging that tank up and down.

[Jeanne]

Calcium Sand! Good for up to 6 months... use a poop sifter for daily spot checking.

Kyle, calci sand (calcium sand) is not good for any species, including snakes, bearded dragons, leos, etc..... they say it is, but the bottom line is, you really cant be sure how much of that stuff your animal is or is not ingesting, leading to too much calcium possibly and still.... impaction. Yes, it is still possible, I have heard horror stories about that stuff, if you are using it for any of your herps, I reccommend getting them changed immediately to a more appropriate bedding. Calci Sand is a way for pet stores to sell you some pretty looking sand thats over priced.. and they really dont care that it is not good for the pet, they figure if they get you to buy that crud, and your animal gets impacted or sick from it and dies, "oh well- they will come buy more animals" thus boosting thier animal sales and the possibility of selling you more junk that either does no good, or alot of harm potentially. Another example.. heat rocks.

[jason221]

Can you use peat moss for substrate with BPs? Seems like that would be easy to clean.

[Spaniard]

I had been using desert snow for over a year, its white (looks pretty) and did a good job of clumping, also since it was white you always were able to spot a dirty area real quick. I spot cleaned as needed and then gave the viv a cleaning from soups to nuts every month. Its more expensive than aspen or anything else but I'll let you decide that. I just recently switched to aspen for cost reasons.