Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What do you guys use as substrate for your rat snakes and why do you use what you use?
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Shannon in Reno
1 savannah monitor (Pombe-means "beer" in Swahili)
6 dogs
1 cat
36 rats
40 mice
54 chickens
3 beardies
1 black rat snake
~1000 hissers
1 giant milipede

>>What do you guys use as substrate for your rat snakes and why do you use what you use?
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I use aspen shavings.
They can have a little bit of dust but not enough for me to consider it a detriment.
aspen shavings are easy to spot clean
Aspen looks better then paper or paper towels
the snakes like to burrow through the aspen so it acts as another hide
and it is fairly inexpensive.
My choice
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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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exactly what Jimmy said. Move your hand Jimmy, so I can copy!
Todd Hughes

I'll have to agree with draybar on the aspen. That's all i've used for years. Besides what he said it is also absorbant unlike reptile bark and other bark beddings. Aspen is also alot cleaner than bark and cypress mulch beddings which are filthly and will dirty the cage and the water source. I use cypress mulch on a couple of my snakes but that is because they need it to be pretty humid and cypress holds mositure very well if used properly. Papertowels and newspaper are horrible. If you have active snakes they tend to "wad" up the paper by crawling on it and trying to burrow under it. Plus one poo on paper usually means that you have to change all of it because it all gets wet. With aspen you can spot clean the soiled spots only. If the aspen gets wet(either by the snake turning over the water or overflowing the bowl by soaking) then you'll have to either dry it out on your cages heat source or throw it away because it will mold but this goes for all other wood chips and paper. As far as dust goes I use Kaytee brand aspen shavings. Over the years and all the brands of aspen this one has virtually no dust. I get mine from Petsmart and it is pretty cheap. There is also L&M Farms aspen. It has no dust and it seems to be more finley shredded than other brands but it is pretty expensive. Hope I could help.

I would agree with most of what was said except the paper being horrible.

I will give you that paper never looks good but it has many other benefits for snake and keeper. The two key things for having paper work well for snakes is to set the enclosure so that you have plenty of hide/quasiburrow oportunities and secondly that you glance at the enclosure regularly for excrement(should be doing that anyway though).

I set up enclosures with paper in two different ways.

If the snake is a non humid snake then I use paper towels, several different hides(including at least one at each end of the enclosure for thermoregulation, at least one with dry sphagnum moss, at least one with damp sphagnum or damp paper towel), a plastic water dish, and I make sure that there is at least one spot at each end of the tank where the papre is raised and accessible so the snake can burrow under the paper. This allows for a dry place to rub off shed, a damp place to soften shed, a wide variety of hides, quasiburrowing and thermoregulation as well as there never being excrement lieing arround for more then a day because you see it immediately on paper and it only takes a minute to replace.

If the snake is a humid snake I take an approach I first picked up from Dave on the rainbow boa forum. A large sweaterbox with holes cut in the sides in the middle of the tank. The sweater box filled with a small layer of peat and a large layer of sphagnum moss both dampened. On top of the sweater box a large water/soaking dish. Then paper or paper with a matt cover as the floor substrate. The sweater box and water dish provide the humidity as long as you restrict airflow. The sweater box provides the hiding locations, burrowing, humid shedding environment, and an isolated space to check for excrement since if it is on the paper you'll see it immediately.

Both of these methods allow for much more reliable removal of excrement in a timely manner while at the same time filling the general needs of the snake and making daily/weekly care of your pets much faster not to mention cheeper.

Another advantage is you can, if your carefull, do a full cage change with little to no involvement of the snake. Almost every hide I use has a bottom(normally cottage cheese or similar container with holes cut in it) so I can actualy slide out the old paper just lifting and moving over each hide one by one, and after cleaning if necesary I slide in the new paper the same way. I can then position the paper for burrow access and it's all done without the snake ever having to come out.

Don't get me wrong I handle them plenty and love playing with them but there are times(after eating, shedding, etc..) when they just need to be left alone.

Also don't take me as being critical of other substrates, I've used a huge variety, as each has their own positives and negatives. Paper with just a water bowl is not a good setup by itself, but you can use paper in a good setup if done correctly. I currently do and will continue to use other substrates for various circumstances. In particular I would not use paper for a display tank as it defeats the purpace of having a display tank.

Anyways just my two cents,

Sean.

I use shredded aspen. It allows snakes to tunnel, its very absorbant, and it can be spot cleaned easily. With my snakes in a rack, I dont feel they need a hide if they can tunnel. They also seem to enjoy it.

I used to get my shredded aspen at the pet store. There it was around $12 a bale. I now get it from a local lab supply company. They only charge $8 a bale, and the bales are about a third larger than the pet store bales too. Plus, if I by 10 bales or more, they give a 10% discount. I just bought 10 bales for $87 after tax.

If you go aspen, look into other sources besides pet stores, it can save you alot.
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3.4 Variable Kings
1.4 Kunasir Island Rats
1.1 Albino Japanese Rats
1.1 Everglades Rats
0.1 White Oak Gray Rat
0.1 Speckled King
0.1 Tarahumara Mtn King
0.1 Amelanistic Corn

How is aspen with humidity?
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Shannon in Reno
1 savannah monitor (Pombe-means "beer" in Swahili)
6 dogs
1 cat
36 rats
40 mice
54 chickens
3 beardies
1 black rat snake
~1000 hissers
1 giant milipede

I assume you're wanting a substrate for your black rat. Aspen isn't great for humidity...but that's unimportant. Black rats don't need humidity like say a rainbow boa. They only need it to be humid when they are in blue(translation= getting ready to shed) and for that all you need is a hide box with damp paper towels or sphagnum moss(either one works fine).
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Scott

Reptiles
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1 Colombian Rainbow Boa (Rocky)
1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)

Other
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1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)
1.0 Hooded Rat* (Clubber, R.I.P.)
0.1 Albino Rat (Isis)