Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just want to take a quick poll as to what most of you who have racks use. Aspen, news paper or cypress? any problem with feeding on aspen or mulch? impaction? i keep all my BPs on news paper but i have a leucistic rat that seems to have scale rot and was told the news paper (it wasnt damp or wet) was in part to blame and dont want anytihng bad happening to my BPs.
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Thanks,
Dave

1.0 Leucistic rat
0.2 Norm Ball Python
1.0 Pastel Ball Python
0.1 Norm BCI
1.0 hypo X hog (sunset cross)
1.1 Anery 66% het stripped snow BCI

Too wet then use Aspen
Too dry then use Cypress

forget about newspaper, thats not even the poor mans solution.

I use cypress on some of my BPs(imports) and aspen for my CB balls. I like the look of the aspen, very clean.

I have never had a shed problem using cypress, but it can get to wet.

What's wrong with newspaper? I have never had any problem whatsoever with it. I do have to admit that a woodchip substarate (any kind) looks nicer, but like I said, newspaper has been great for me.

I use sani chips, it works very well for me. I used newspaper before, but after so many spilled water bowls w/ sloppy wet newspaper. I switched over to aspen because of that.

Kyle

I use newspaper too, and have not had any problems. I have no problem with spilled water dishes, although my Mojave Poss Het Hypo male is in the blue, and sitting in his dish, and water has overflowed, but that would only be a problem in a melamine or closed rack, in a Freedom Breeder rack, a spilled water dish on newpaper is just "Humidity."

Dave

I use news print.

The only exception is gravid females get aspen they seem to like to nest in it.

The winner is the substrate that best suites your needs.

If aesthetics are important to you, then wood might be more to your liking.

If you like the speed/ease of using paper, than that might be your choice.

Its individual preference, they all work.

Also scale rot is caused from wet conditions, or unsanitary conditions.
If your paper was dry it won’t be the cause.

TomChambers

I use chipped aspen in my racks - love it. Dont care much for newspaper - neither did my snakes - tried it for a couple of months - was hoping it was as easy as everyone said it would be - it wasn't. Shredded aspen was too dusty, still use it for the rats but not the snakes - have seen a lot of mouth sores from feeding on this stuff. Cypress I really like but too hard too find where I am and usually has bugs (don't like having to cook it). Use Reptibark in my tanks and like that best of all - but too expensive for rack use. Back in the olden days I used the fake carpet stuff - that just sucked. Might like to try those precut liners - that could be interesting but my snakes really like to borrow down into their substrate cant do that with liners.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 Lizard of unknown origin

Hey Tosha,
What was so complicated about newspaper? Just curious.

LOL - I guess the biggest problem was that it was always getting wet either by urine or water. With the paper - the snakes were easily dragging their crocks all around the cage and they were constantly slopping water all over their cage. When we would do our cleaning in the morning we would find that we were having to change out about 1/3 of our tubs on a daily basis - so instead of just spot cleaning and scooping out the dirty/wet aspen we were removing tubs, snakes, etc. putting down new paper and putting everything back. Also the paper would either be wet and falling apart or stuck to the bottom of the tub and in need of scraping. And the way the newspaper would absorb the water/urine it would spread through darn near half the cage - and the snakes would inevitably end up sitting in it - whereas with the aspen it would filter to the the bottom layer of the aspen and remain in a small area that would be easily scooped out and replaced with fresh. In a nutshell for us it didn't do a very good enough job keeping our snakes clean and happy and doubled our workload.

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with using newspaper but for us it was a nightmare.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 Lizard of unknown origin

I've never had any of those problems with news print??

Except water bowls spilled when they are paired up.

Also, you said your snakes like to burrow, so they must be at the bottom where all your liquid urates are collecting.

Personally I see very little liquid urates from my snakes so it's never been a problem for me.

What kind of aspen did you try?? I have not found the aspen I get to be dusty at all.

I tried some cheap pine for the rats once and it was dusty.

But since I found a good nursery a few years ago, I have never even seen dusty pine.

TomChambers

>>Also, you said your snakes like to burrow, so they must be at the bottom where all your liquid urates are collecting.

Rarely do we find any soiled aspen around where the snakes are - if it's in the back where they hunker down it's usually confined to a corner of the tub (they tend to deficate/urinate in a corner and hunker down in the middle) or at the front of the tub were they don't spend a lot of time.

>>What kind of aspen did you try?? I have not found the aspen I get to be dusty at all.

Couple differnt kinds mostly stick to Harlan tho.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 Lizard of unknown origin

I've tried the different wood shavings and newspaper. I like using the blank unprinted newspaper or sketch paper the best. Why? Whenever the paper got wet I would see the ink on the bottom of my snakes especially on my albino because of the humidity.

Feeding them is easier on the paper and it's still cheaper than wood shavings. I don't have to worry about swallowed shavings. I don't care about the asthetics, and I don't think my babies care either.
GL! Mark Alan

anyone use this? i can get a 18" X 360' roll for 17$ plus $7 shipping. sounds worth it to me!
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Thanks,
Dave

1.0 Leucistic rat
0.2 Norm Ball Python
1.0 Pastel Ball Python
0.1 Norm BCI
1.0 hypo X hog (sunset cross)
1.1 Anery 66% het stripped snow BCI

Hi Dave -

Here’s a link to some discussions on that topic:

forums.kingsnake.com/viewarch.php?id=1006540,1007800&key=2006

-Joan

>>anyone use this? i can get a 18" X 360' roll for 17$ plus $7 shipping. sounds worth it to me!
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>>Thanks,
>>Dave

sounds good to me too, I say whatever paper is safe and cheap. I'll look it up online, Thanks!

The kraft is not the same paper as the cage liner (DCL) sold on king snake. I have used kraft paper and it is not as absorbent as dcl. My snakes also did not shed as well with this paper. It is a little waxy like butcher paper. I would not recommend using it. I have been using the dcl paper for about 4 years and can't find it any place but king snake through Charles Lamb. PAPER MAFIA LOL Jon

I've used it, it wasn't bad but it's not very absorbent. Now I'm getting rolls of unprinted newspaper from Uline (same place I got the kraft paper from) It seems to work better and it's cheaper and I can use the same paper cutter I got for the kraft paper.

Mark

>>anyone use this? i can get a 18" X 360' roll for 17$ plus $7 shipping. sounds worth it to me!
>>-----
>>Thanks,
>>Dave
>>
>>1.0 Leucistic rat
>>0.2 Norm Ball Python
>>1.0 Pastel Ball Python
>>0.1 Norm BCI
>>1.0 hypo X hog (sunset cross)
>>1.1 Anery 66% het stripped snow BCI

Easy to clean, looks better than newspaper and more absorbant.
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Nita Hamilton
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Ball Pythons
ballpythonworld.com

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I give mine a quick spray with a water bottle and they stay flat. Not too much mind you, it also keeps the humidity good.
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Nita Hamilton
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Ball Pythons
ballpythonworld.com

I use papertowel. It's easy to clean, easy to put into tank, doesn't leave ink stains on the tub, snake or your hands. It does get moved around a bit but I don't see that as much a problem. The various hides and water dishes tend to keep the majority of the the papertowel from being moved around. I don't separate the papertowel into individual sheets, just roll out approximate number of squares needed to cover the length of the tank, x2, so i can lay then down two layers thick at once, with overlap in the middle.

I have tried newspaper but find it more likely to get soiled and break apart, stick to the bottom of the cage etc. Also, I don't read the newspaper very often so it's much harder for me to get newspapers than paper towel. I use what newspapers I have as a lining underneath the rat beddings. The rats love using the paper to line their nests etc.

I do like aspen shavings, it is very useful but find it expensive around here and with a tight budget, have to save money where I can.
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PHLdyPayne

One problem w/ news paper is it doesn't seem to absorb any of the odors... since I have my animals in our familiy room this is a major consideration... had 2 new quarentined animals "go" at the same time ( on newspaper)and the entire 2nd and 3rd floors reaked. Don't have this problem with either aspen or Cypress, Not to mention you can do a quick spot cleaning in between substrate changes.

I have been using aspen for My Bps, and Cypress for my Borneo. But am planning to switch over to cypress for all since it makes it easier to raise the humidity during sheds.

One other benefit of cypress is that you can recycle it in the flower beds.
MHO
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"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"
COLD BLOOD.........WARM HEART

I use newspaper, its cheap and effecient, i look through my cages at least every other day, so any spilled waters just get changed out. I have used Aspen but it is very dusty and im allergic to the dust, and it also gets moldy really quick, and then you get those annoying wood mites (not the bad ones). I like paper towels but i have 700 Balls so that tends to be a little too expensive. Cypress isnt bad i use it for my rainbows, but i still perfer newspaper 10 to 1 for the balls. I have never had any problems with it and my snakes dont complain.
Kim