Although I haven't used potting soil persay, I have used the coconut husk product - e.g. EcoEarth, EcoPeat, etc - with immense success.

If you can deal with the extra cleaning necessary (soil tends to stick to everything) then I say experiment and see how things go.

Just because most people use aspen doesn't necessarily make it the best for the snake in question. Aspen is available and cheap and generally works well for many species. Still, I have had just a few snakes get runny noses on aspen that went away completely when switched to coconut product substrate or else newspaper.

I realize ratsnakes may be less prone to burrowing, so keep that in mind when reading my comments below.

For kings and milks, the property of the soil holding humidity under the surface is a real benefit. My hatchlings of various milks and kings absolutely thrived using the coconut husk dirt as a substrate. They were not dehydrated like alot of baby snakes one sees and the feeding response of some (like ruthveni) seemed to improve, and although it is difficult to actually prove that statement, I still stand by it. Dehaydrated hatchlings do not do as well IMO, especially for largely sub-surface ground-dwelling species.

Good luck and I hope it works out for you.

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