Reptile & Amphibian Forums

which is the most popular?

Newspaper sucks.......ink gets on everything, no absorbancy, and breaks apart when wet
Paper towels are good......absorbant
Cypress mulch is the best......retains moisture fairly well, resists mildew....BUT I hate it because of the bugs. It's an outdoor product so you will get the outside bugs.......wood lice, knat-looking bugs, etc.

I just switched all of my ball pythons to aspen. I guess I will need to increase the humidity in the room because I'm gonna try not to spray the aspen.

Anyone have any tips for keeping humidity up when using aspen w/o getting the mildew??
Thanks.

Brian

Cage Carpet. No bugs, no ink, absorbant, doesn't get loaded with mildew or bacteria. Good stuff several companies make.
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Mike and David at 3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com

Just switched back to papertowel. the bugs in the cypress were driving me crazy.

Ever since i heard firsthand about a 5k morph male(lemon stud.,3 years ago)dying due to choking on substrate(don't ask who...not my place to say)...ive stuck with newspaper.
(Let alone the 5 minutes i spent last year taking a chunk out of a 120 gram females throat,with hemo-stats.)

...and just recently i've even heard about a male losing a hemi-pene.Due to an infection from an injury sustained while breeding on a natural type substrate...again...i'll stick with paper.

I have been using paper towels for anything under 300 grams or so...after that they get newspaper(creatively layered and folded).

...also
Since i read a post on Ralphies site about using newspaper balls for them to hide in/under/and around (sorry,forgot who you are to post credit)...i've had increased success with some shy animals feeding in tubs(without hides).
The tip was...to gradually take away so many of the newspaper balls from time to time(to "wean" them into the open).

jmho

good luck
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Charles Glaspie

Tanstaafl:
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".
An acronym created by my favorite author Robert A. Heinlein.

I use the unprinted "newsprint" paper. You can purchase it from most paper supply companys. Order the 24" x 36" paper if you have the CB 70 boxes. I have about 200 boxes to clean & and one bundle lasts about a month or so.

Once i told a few people around me that i used newspaper for my snakes...i started getting stacks of it,neatly folded and put aside for me....people like getting involved(At a distance.)

Thanks for the tip though!
My preferance for cheap ink covered paper may be overridden once i start keeping a few albinos,pieds,snows,and or lucys.
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Charles Glaspie

Tanstaafl:
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".
An acronym created by my favorite author Robert A. Heinlein.

I've used many different types of substrates but I always keep coming back to newspaper for my adult animals. I use paper towels for the babies. I buy unprinted rolls of 18" wide newsprint from uline.com I have one of their paper cutters too and just tear off whatever length I need and put down either two or three layers. I also like to tear off a short section of paper and crumple it up a bit so the snakes have something to hide under. Here is a URL

www.uline.com/Browse_Listing_1954.asp?desc=Newsprint Rolls

I've used aspen, peat moss, potting soil, sand, fir bark, cypress mulch, pine shavings, indoor/outdoor carpeting, and kraft paper. I always end up back with newsprint because it's just easier to clean.

Mark

>>which is the most popular?