Pine, like cedar contains toxic oils that can be irritating and lethal to snakes. Kiln dried pine shavings isn't too bad but not all pine shavings are kiln dried. Basically if it smells like pine to you, don't use it.



The cost of aspen various from place to place and bag size. I have seen it sell 2-3 times as much as an equivilant size/volumn bag of pine shavings. I can get the large bags of pine for about $7, an equal size/volumn bag of aspen is about $14-$21 depending where I go. (these are Canadian prices). If you use alot, maybe talk to any large feed/seed stores or even your local petstores or walmarts and maybe they will bulk sell it to you for cheaper.



Cypress mulch can be used as a substrate for snakes. It isn't as good as aspen, as it tends to be bigger chunks and corn snakes can't burrow into it as easily as aspen shavings but could be a useful alternative. Feed outside the cage or put something down ontop of the wood shavings to prevent accidental ingestion of the substrate.



The cheapest substrate to use is plain old white papertowel (or brown papertowel, for a slightly different look) or unprinted newsprint.
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PHLdyPayne

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