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I just spent all day Sunday cleaning EVERY SINGLE ONE of my cages b/c I had an infestation of little white mites, which I figured were wood mites. Suffice it to say, I don't want to have to go through that again.

I have all boa constrictors.

Any suggestions on cage liners for Boas?

Is there an artificial substrate made instead of using Aspen shavings? If so, where can I purchase it?

What about absorbant cage liners? But aren't those a pain due to changing them very often? Who makes the best type?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

First off, I have never used any thype of shaving product so I can't speak to their ease of use / cleaning.

I do however use my own cut version of a cage liner. I get rolls of indented craft paper from uline.com . I made a jig for my table saw to hold the paper with a cutting edge where the saw blade is so I can use my fence to measure the paper. I use several sizes for my various cages. That and a couple of layers of newspaper for added absorbancy are what I use in ALL my cages/tubs. Yes I do end up changing fairly often. My cages are always kept clean and I know when any waste products come out. None get lost/buried under a pile of shavings. With 60 plus snakes in the house, I clean several cages/tubs every day. One trick I use that seems to work great is to make the hides out of tubs with holes in the sides. I line these as well and the snakes seem to like using them as bathrooms. Advantage is you can remove the tub with all the mess and not have to clkean the entire cage. Also my wider cages get two narrower pieces and again, quite often only one side requires cleaning. Lastly, all cages /tubs have paper wider and deeper then the czge/tub so it will ride up the sides an inch or so, less smeared on the sides = easier to clean!

>>I just spent all day Sunday cleaning EVERY SINGLE ONE of my cages b/c I had an infestation of little white mites, which I figured were wood mites. Suffice it to say, I don't want to have to go through that again.
>>
>>I have all boa constrictors.
>>
>>Any suggestions on cage liners for Boas?
>>
>>Is there an artificial substrate made instead of using Aspen shavings? If so, where can I purchase it?
>>
>>What about absorbant cage liners? But aren't those a pain due to changing them very often? Who makes the best type?
>>
>>Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>>Thanks.
>>
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
11.24 BRB
10.16 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I use this stuff you can get at Lowes in the paint department. It is a thick brown paper that you can cut to the length you want. It is great just roll it out and cut some off and its easy to throw away when dirty.
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1.1 Motley het butter corns
0.1 Snow corn
0.1 Okeetee corn
1.0 Anery mutt corn
0.1 Stripe Ghost corn
0.1 Amelanistic corn het carmel
2.1 Colombian Redtails
1.0 Hypo Colombian redtail
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Anery Kenyan sand boa
0.1 Normal Kenyan sand boa

When I started in the hobby, I first used indoor/outdoor carpeting. Looked ok, and was easy to replace (had two pieces, would take out the dirty one, pop in the clean one right away and wash the dirty one).... but for more than one cage that gets to be a hassle, and dried feces was hard to scrub out of the carpet.

So once I started getting more snakes, I switched to aspen. Fairly easy, but messy, splinters would stick to my clothes when cleaning. One of my snakes got a splinter lodged between his nostrils after striking at prey, which got infected and had to be aspirated at the vet (and he's got a scar now as a result), and so I changed from aspen shavings to CareFresh small animal bedding (it's a soft shredded cellulose product, like little clumps of paper towel). That is what I'm currently using. It is very absorbent, almost too much so (I mist my boa cages every other day as a result to keep humidity at an acceptable level). It's a processed fiber product (probably gets boiled at the factory as part of the manufacturing process), so it won't have the bugs aspen might. It's comparable to "Desert Snow" bedding which you'll find in the reptile section - but getting a big bale of CareFresh in the small animal section of a pet store is MUCH cheaper than Desert Snow and is pretty much the same product, except for color.

The problem I have with the CareFresh type bedding is that my snakes all grab a big "tailful" of it when I take them out of their cages, and then they dump it on the floor. No big deal, it's easy to clean up but still annoying.

So going forward, especially since I will be attempting to breed a pair of boas this winter, I will be getting dimpled kraft paper from Uline soon as well.
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Lauren Madar
www.ophidiagems.com
1.1 Hog Island Boas
1.1 Hypo BCI
0.1 Sorong-type GTP
1.0 Normal Ball Python

I think I might look into the Carefresh solution. I am out of town from time to time and have friends look after my snakes. One worry I have is them having to handle the snakes to remove the cage lining.

Most of my snakes are fed in racks outside of their cages and are not overly agressive at all, but I still don't feel comfortable asking people to handle my snakes to clean up their cages.

The CareFresh solution sounds like it has the advantages of Aspen bedding, which is easy to cleanup, but doesn't have the downside of mite infestation or splinters.

I did order a rool of indented kraft paper too. I'll test which solution works out best.

Thanks for the advice. Keep it coming...

indented kraft paper (to save money)
sheets of the brown paper painters lay down
rolls of cardboard
stacks of sheets of newspaper...

aspen, mixed mulch, moss, and more

tried to get around the cost of using DCL cage liners, but has always come back to bite me...

Those cage liners from DCL are much better than anything I could've used, and they are well worth it...

They are far thicker, and can handle much more, absorb much more, and not break apart when removing them. It doesn't mold up either, like many of the other papers with a bit of moisture.

Look them up... they are in the caging section.

Bci Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin