Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So i am new here, whats up. I have quite a few reptiles and will be getting a large male bull snake in a few days, it is about 5.5 feet, awesome red, and puppy dog tame. I have decided to put it on display and have been wondering if sad, like a play sand or calci sand would work well, it will be in a cool desert set up, and i usually use aspen bedding but i want to go natural this time, i will post some pics when i have time, thanks.

Sand isnt a good choice.Pit poo has a god awful smell that is hard to spot clean even with aspen.

>>So i am new here, whats up. I have quite a few reptiles and will be getting a large male bull snake in a few days, it is about 5.5 feet, awesome red, and puppy dog tame. I have decided to put it on display and have been wondering if sad, like a play sand or calci sand would work well, it will be in a cool desert set up, and i usually use aspen bedding but i want to go natural this time, i will post some pics when i have time, thanks.
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If lead paint is so deadly why do they make it so delicious?

Yea, thats what i worried about, its gunna be in my room cause the rest of my apt. is full.... I figgured that sand would be the easier way to go about cleaning, cause im not about to have a smelly snake were i sleep. do you think that might really be a problem, i have a 5 foot hogg island boa in my room and it has never given me any smell problems, but im pretty anal about keeping things clean.
Thanks.

That is one of the major bonuses of owning snakes. They are virtually odourless untill they have a crap. It takes 2 minutes to scoop out the soiled aspen and you are good for the next week.
We sleep with 3 snakes, one of which is an adult Sonoran Gopher.
Smell is not a problem.

So sand in a natural cage set up is still not a good idea, i guess i had the mind set that they had excrament like indigos, the hole runny, exsplosive, mess that it is, i have never owned any pits so i dont really know, if its not worse than a big boa or python, then it sould be ok. So for further comfort what is so bad about sand, i have heard of some snakes becoming aggresive if they can not burrow or hide, but i keep alot of my snakes on newspaper and paper towels, is it the possibility of scale rub, or knocking a water bowl on to it? I have no problem with aspen, im just wondering
Thanks

Sand is heavy and a major pain to clean.If your bull decides to knock his water bowl over your going to have a wet mess to deal with not to mention sand is a wonderful medium for bacterial growth.I use to keep and breed pastel yellow beardies.The sand in my 55gallon glass breeder looked great along with the driftwood.On the other hand hauling sand,lifting a 55gallon with 50 to 70 pounds of sand in it to clean was a major job.Apsen and newspapers are so easy to clean and use I will stick with them.

>>So sand in a natural cage set up is still not a good idea, i guess i had the mind set that they had excrament like indigos, the hole runny, exsplosive, mess that it is, i have never owned any pits so i dont really know, if its not worse than a big boa or python, then it sould be ok. So for further comfort what is so bad about sand, i have heard of some snakes becoming aggresive if they can not burrow or hide, but i keep alot of my snakes on newspaper and paper towels, is it the possibility of scale rub, or knocking a water bowl on to it? I have no problem with aspen, im just wondering
>>Thanks
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If lead paint is so deadly why do they make it so delicious?

I like aspen, but for display purposes, and for cheaper cost, I just go to the home center and get cypress mulch for my bulls. They can dig in it, and it clumps around the poop, and looks really nice, and it won't hurt the snake, just make sure (and this goes for aspen also) that the snake doesnt swallow any large pieces of substrate when you feed. This can be arranged by feeding your animals that are not moist to the touch when you feed them or just use tongs and grab the tail with the tongs so the snake can start easily at the head- my female bull eats this way just fine. Also I make sure that the thawing process has not put to much moisture on the rats. Cypress looks great in a tank- more natural than aspen and CHEAPER.

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125 Orchid plants
20 other tropical plants and succulents
12 Bonsai Trees
28 Tarantulas & 1 Androctonus Scorpion
6 Planted Freshwater Tanks
1.1 Kankakee Bulls
1.0 Texas Red Bull
0.1 Kansas Yellow Bull
1.1 Costal Chocolate Cal Kings