Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After 2 years of using aspen Im done with it.Spot cleaning still leaves smells.I honestly dont know why I stopped using newspaper after years of using nothing else.

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If lead paint is so deadly why do they make it so delicious?

I used to use repti bark but it was SO expensive, and so hard to spot clean.

aspen I love, it's cheap enough that I change it out every 2 weeks so it never builds up odor. Cypress I use for my humidity-lovin' baby BRB, and paper towels for all the hatchlings and leopard geckos.

I use aspen for the bedding and sphagnum moss for the moist hide for the mandarins. I don't think my foxsnakes or mandarins would be happy with newspaper. The schrencki,longissima, subocs and the lindheimeriwould probably be okay. Maybe I'll try it.

I use shreddded aspen for most of mine, but newspaper or paper towels for neonates and those in quarantine. I also keep moist hides in most of my enclosures, with moist sphagnum or cypress mulch or paper towels in them. I had switched all of my snakes to newspaper and paper towels last year, but switched them back after noticing a few things. My wc adult female meahllmorum would never come out of their hide boxes, even at night, and became constipated from lack of excercise and possibly lack of moisture and over-feeding. When I switched them back to aspen, they began tunnelling through it immediately. This, plus keeping moist hides and gallon water jugs with the tops cut off, half full of water (for soaking), got them to be active and no longer constipated. So, the ones that I feel need aspen have security issues, and a deep layer of aspen or some similar substrate helps them feel safe enough to move about without being exposed.

-Toby

I agree. It depends upon the snake and/or species. Aspen works well for animals that need security--whatever the reason.
I also use aspen with most during brumation.

rgds,
althea

I use aspen and I love it. I was warned off of Reptibark/Jungle Earth, etc., because of the potential for mite eggs. Also, my Radiated Rat Snake was making a weird clicking noise when I held him - no signs of a respiratory infection - but someone on this forum mentioned switching him from the "dusty" reptibark material and it worked like a charm!

I use sand/soil mixtures for humidity retention in the tropical enclosures. Great for spot cleaning.

Sand for desert reptiles. Looks great and easy to mainatin.

Hatchlings and quarantines get paper towels for ease of cleaning and stool monitoring.

The juvies in tubs and the cribos in melamine enclosures get aspen for ease of cleaning. Cribos are some filthy creatures when confined to cages!

I have an injured wild caught Gopher on newspaper. His jaw doesn't shut, so any loose substrate is just asking for trouble.
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Diego

Diego & Tiffany's Zoo:
SNAKES
4.3.0 Corn Snakes (Different morphs)
1.1.0 Everglades Rat Snakes
1.0.0 Baird's Rat Snake
0.1.0 Trans-Pecos Rat Snake
0.1.0 Amel Pacific Gopher Snake
1.0.0 Het Amel San Diego Gopher Snake
2.0.0 Sonoran Gopher Snake
0.1.0 Amel Sonoran Gopher Snake
1.0.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
2.1.0 Gray Banded Kingsnakes (River Road)
0.1.1 California Kingsnakes
0.1.0 Thayeri Kingsnake
0.0.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0.0 Boa Constrictor
0.1.0 Dumeril's Boa
1.1.0 Rosy Boas (Mexican & Mid Baja)
1.1.0 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1.0 Indonesian Dwarf Pacific Boa
0.1.0 Tangerine Honduran Milksnake
1.0.0 Honduran Milksnake
1.2.0 Ball Pythons
1.0.0 Woma Python
1.1.0 Cape York Spotted Pythons
1.1.0 Macklot's Pythons
0.0.1 Ribbon Snake
1.0.0 Western Hognose
1.0.0 Yellowtail Cribo
0.1.0 Blacktail Cribo
0.0.2 Northern Ringnecks

LIZARDS
1.0.0 Frilled Dragon
3.1.0 Bearded Dragons (2 Normal, 1 RedXGold, 1 Citrus)
1.1.0 Eastern Collared Lizard
0.1.0 Merauke Blue Tongue Skink
2.3.0 Leopard Geckos
1.0.1 Yellow Niger Uromastyx
1.1.0 Chuckwalla
0.1.0 Banded Gecko
FROGS
2.2.0 Southern Bell Frogs
1.0.1 Green Tree Frogs
1.0.0 Striped Walking Frogs
1.1.1 White's Tree Frogs

Aspen,
But some of my animals have a terrible drinking problem and the aspen absorbs the whiskey.
.

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Regards, Bill McGighan

Bill, that bottle looks like alot of the 1800's beer bottles I've dove up around here. If only I could find some drunken sub-ocs to go with them!!

Sure is.
Circa 1855 from the bottom of the Ocklawaha River, just north of the confluence of the Silver River from Silver Springs!
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Regards, Bill McGighan

Well, kiss my......
You're a Florida boy!!
We might could swap a few artifact stories.
Aren't you a Nam vet? Me too. 173rd.

Hey,Man,
Semi-small world!!!!
We've lived in Florida 3 separate times:
Early 70s, 7 years, Ocala/Silver Springs.
Early 80s, 2 years, Orlando.
92 - 2002, Boca and Orlando.
We're in Tennessee now but regularly visit our kids and grand kids in Martin County.
.
And yeah, VietNam, 1968, with Fourth Marines.
.
I'll try to email you...
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Regards, Bill McGighan

Trying to update my e-mail address as we speak, with no success so far. Anywho, it's DaninFla@aol.com. The Ocala area is one of my old haunts in search of Indian artifacts.

Newspaper for most of 'em. Since you used it for years, you know the advantages. I'm also big into cost-effective and the whole "re-use, reduce, recycle" idea.

White paper towels for my hatchlings.

I still use aspen in a few cages, especially if it is more of a "display" cage. I was always very paranoid about snakes ingesting it during feeding. Actually, I was just VERY careful, despite all who said that adult snakes can handle small bits of it (which I'm sure they can). The result: When ALL my snakes were on aspen, feeding time took forever.

I use a mix of expanding coconut coir and cypress for a cave dwelling ratsnake. In addition to the obvious benefits of helping to maintain humidity and aesthetics, I too found that my snake spends a lot of time burrowing through the substrate. I've been using this for a year and a half now and never had problems with mold or parasites. But if the substrate gets too dry, my snake will sneeze sometimes to expel dust from his nostrils. Spot cleaning is somewhat cheaper than with aspen, since coconut coir is very inexpensive.

>>After 2 years of using aspen Im done with it.Spot cleaning still leaves smells.I honestly dont know why I stopped using newspaper after years of using nothing else.
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I replied earlier, don't know why my post is gone.
I use aspen shavings
aspen shavings are better then aspen chips in my opinion but either is better then newspaper.
Aspen is easy to spot clean, the snakes like to burrow through it, it isn't as cheap as news paper obviously but sure looks better.
Newspaper gets soggy, moved around, crumpled and just plain ugly
and can even transfer ink stains to the tank decorations and snakes.
I just don't like it.
Aspen shavings for me
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

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>>After 2 years of using aspen Im done with it.Spot cleaning still leaves smells.I honestly dont know why I stopped using newspaper after years of using nothing else.
>>
>>
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>>If lead paint is so deadly why do they make it so delicious?
>>

I have always used "place mats" (the kind can you place on our dinner table) which you can get at any Big Lotts, Dollar General type store. The non-coth type of these mats can be hand wash and they are very cheap, 49 to 69 cents a mat. I use four mats in my 40 gallon breader cages. I replace the mats every month. They look a lot better than newspapper, are washable and without any ink. None of my snakes have every acted like they did not like them either.
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Like I said; I`m Gonna Getcha Good!