Does anybody keep their snakes on exposed cage bottoms? I have vinyl tile which is a very nice background and I would love the easy clean up. I know conventional protocol uses substrate, but is it necessary for a snake's health?
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0.0.1 Snow Corn
1.0 Ghosts
0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0 Albino Burmese Python
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No Substrate Method
kiknskreem
Feb 18, 2006 04:36 PM
Replies (3)
Sonya
Feb 18, 2006 07:54 PM
>>Does anybody keep their snakes on exposed cage bottoms? I have vinyl tile which is a very nice background and I would love the easy clean up. I know conventional protocol uses substrate, but is it necessary for a snake's health?
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>>0.0.1 Snow Corn
>>1.0 Ghosts
>>0.0.1 Ball Python
>>1.0 Albino Burmese Python
I would think that without something to soak it up that wastes would end up all over the animal. Just my thought...I haven't tried it out.
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Sonya
Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron
goregrind
Feb 20, 2006 07:15 AM
you might get away with it with the pythons but corn poo is too wet. try it with your ball(easier to clean the snake) and see what happens.
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jake
my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (zyklon)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
jfmoore
Feb 20, 2006 03:24 PM
Maybe if you only had one or two snake cages like that. But I can’t conceive of any keeper, no matter how well-intentioned and diligent, being able to keep the wastes cleaned up adequately. Many times you probably wouldn’t even be aware that the snake was lying directly on top of its urates and feces. Just add a water spill, and you’ve got the classic definition of a sewer.
If you had facilities that allowed daily drainage and hosing out of the cage, that would be a different story. Even then, I’d wonder how any snake would react to living its life on such a surface.
Another issue regarding sanitation – many snakes seem to drink more readily from the “ground.” I’ve seen my blood pythons, for instance, often ignore bowls full of constantly replenished fresh water, immediately putting their heads down to drink if they come across pooled water on their cage floors. If your snakes did the same, who knows what they’d be ingesting over time? Not just possibly bacteria, viruses and parasites, but disinfectant residue.
-Joan
>>Does anybody keep their snakes on exposed cage bottoms? I have vinyl tile which is a very nice background and I would love the easy clean up. I know conventional protocol uses substrate, but is it necessary for a snake's health?
