Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

So I've had my Borneo STP male for just about 2 years now. Up until very recently I've just kept him on paper towles, but always had problems keeping the humidity up. A few weeks ago I switched him over to cyrpess mulch, as I've had good luck with it for my Tegu with holding humidity and such. He seems to love it, he can burrow in it which he takes full advtange of. My only concern with the cypress mulch is it gets a little dusty when it dries out and theres always the possibility of him ingesting a sliver when he eats. There's recently been a lot of positive comments regarding Aspen bedding in the boa forum so I'm thinking of giving that a shot. Do any of you use aspen for your bloods or STP's? Any positive, or not so positive experience with it?

Thanks!
Caietaro

I use aspen only for hatchlings and yearlings. As adults I use newspaper exclusively. Aspen is fine if you change it frequently, but it molds very easily in most environments. I never was a big fan of cypress since it hides feces and urates too easily and is a pain to keep clean. Looks great and for that I only use it for shows. I know Carefresh is another option, but it is very pricey. I also have used shredded paper, which works great and is easy to clean.

Hope that helps.
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I have been using aspen for my ball Pythons, but cypress for my Borneo.

The aspen really does not hold humidity well.If you already had a humidity problem w/ paper towels, you might not want to switch to aspen. You can not just dump water on it to raise the humidity,it will mold (as mentioned previously)

As far as ingesting , I haven't had a problem with cypress, nor have any of the "experts" I've spoken with.

Aspen actually seems to have smaller pieces that are more likely to stick to F/T. I have ocasionally had to pic out pieces that were stuck in My Bp's teeth. Not such a big deal if you have a small collection that you can't keep your hands off of. Aspen Is much easier to spot clean (due to clummping and visibility) than the cypress, And I like the way it looks better.

I am actually planning to switch all to cypress, mainly for the humidity.

Hope this is helpful.

MHO.
BRGDS,
AVD

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