Reptile & Amphibian Forums

thought id get some after reading how everyone was praising the stuff. so why exactly do people love it and what are the bad things about it?

I like it. I don't love it but it is better than other things I have used. I use the moss from Home Depot and put it in containers to make humid hides. I also keep an open container of it for my Burmese Python who hates water; it bumps up the humidity in his cage in this instance. As long as you keep it moist it lasts forever.

Things I don't like:
Will smell really bad if left too wet and molding starts (made this mistake)

If your animal goes potty in there, you'll be replacing all the moss esp with Borneos.

It has small particles that end up in the watyer dish if your snakes soak in there after being in mulch.

I wouldn't feed on it although I can't say it would present a problem like mulch would.

All ini all, it is a good product to increase humidity without having to use a mulch like cypress. Everytime I try to use cypress i get a ton of bugs. I now use paper and my cages are so much cleaner! I use the moss for humidity purposes since newspaper and craft paper do little for that.

so im gathering from the info that youve stated that it is best to use sphagnum moss for a small (enclosed) part of the enclosure along with another type of bedding? seems to me that snakes generally urinate a lot more than they defecate so replacement of the moss would be a frequent thing since i dont believe that the moss can be cleaned. Does everyone that uses the moss just use it to make humidity areas or does anyone use the stuff as the main substrate?

Right. I don't use it as a bedding. I know some people do but I don't. I would say that you don't need to replace it that often. Only if it gets too wet or soiled.

I would think if you used it as a bedding you would be replacing it a lot more often.