Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I increased (by a lot) the size of the water dish in my kingsnake's tank and she instantly came out to investigate! She seems to dig it. The first pic shows her setup, it's a 30 breeder to give you an idea of size, she's about three feet. The second pic is obviously out of focus but it shows her enjoying her water bowl less than an hour after I put it in there. That's CareFresh in there, she was sneezing a while back but has not sneezed since I switched from aspen to this.

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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

Cool looking King, looks like she's loving her new bowl. About the CareFresh, what do you think about it, like to aspin? Pros, cons of it? Thanks!

Scott D

I haven't been using the carefresh for long, but it took only a week of using it to notice that Belle stopped sneezing. I don't think that's a scientific standard of proof that the aspen was making her sneeze, but I'm going to keep using it for a while.

Aesthetically, I don't like it. I prefer the natural looking aspen. Cleaning it's either the same or easier to deal with.

Bottom line, if I didn't think (or end up not thinking) it was healthier for my snake, I would go back to aspen. But I'm still fairly new at all this so I'm still figuring out what I like and what works best for me and my snakes.
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

Thanks, gonna give it a try and see. Aspin isn't the be all that some people claim!

Since this is the time of year I have been collecting pine needles and using that for substrate. I brumate my snakes in it.

Whenever I take my daughter to the park i fill up a large trash bag with the stuff. It is all over the ground this time of year. Call me chaep but the snakes seem to love it. I have not encontered any problems with it being it is very cold outside and all the bugs have dissapeared.
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" there is really no such thing as an expert keeper/breeder, but there are those who let the snakes be expert at being snakes."-Frank Retes

I took this picture this afternoon. I could collect enough of this substrate, but I don't think that would be very healthy.

What part of the country are you in, Bluerosy?

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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

lol... thats cute... gotta love dogs...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Mali Uromastyx
1.1 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha

southern Long needle pine droppinng????btw they burn good?

I've been using the carefresh for my snakes for about a year now...

on the good side, the snakes love it, they can burrow through it, it holds the heat nice, and its really easy to clean because it doesn't add noticably extra weight to the cage, so I'm still able to pick them up and carry them to the tub to clean them... there's no way I could do that if I was using something like sand...

on the bad, it is a little dusty, its a pain to spot clean because you can't really see the spots that are soiled if they're not right on top, and unless you have a high sided water dish, you'll end up with bedding in it daily...

I did use it for my mice before I got rid of them... what a pain... they constantly made it a point to pile bedding up in front of their water bottle and empty it into the cage... when the bedding gets that wet, its very smelly and heavy... as a result, I fed all my mice to the snakes...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Mali Uromastyx
1.1 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha

Thanks Maggie for the info. I know what you mean about mice, they stink bad enough with out wet bedding. Not to mention when they eat their babies, nasty! No wonder I went with frozen mice!

Scott D

Yeah, mice are pretty nasty little critters... I have no idea what would possess someone to keep rodents for any reason other then reptile food, but to each their own I guess...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Mali Uromastyx
1.0 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha
1.0 Australian Shepherd

Nor do I. For me mice are only good for a cheap cat toy and snake food!

Scott D

Nice spotted calking! Also Maggie, way to deal with that mouse problem, lol! I raise my own mice now,and they do stink but I like feeding live or fresh dead believing they are more nutritious and give the snakes more exercise.I used cypress mulch in the beginning, liked it a lot but was impossible to spot clean, switched to aspen in '03 and never looked back! I do start all the hatchlings on paper towels but switch them to aspen quickly. there are different sizes that aspen are chopped into, I believe the biggest pieces make the better substrate. as with all substrates, spillage of the water bowls can frag up the whole cage if not taken care of quickly. I think aspen doesn't mold as quickly as some of the other substrates. I haven't used carefresh except for rodents.
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Todd Hughes

Mice are way too much of a hassle to try to raise... that, and they stink so bad... the only use I had for them was to keep my grandma out of my house so she didn't complain about the snakes lol...

I also learned the hard way, quite by accident, that while mice love fresh tomatoes, they will eat themselves to death with them... not a good thing to discover when its 90 degrees outside when I don't have an air condidtioner... lets just say that was a bad day...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Mali Uromastyx
1.0 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha
1.0 Australian Shepherd

Thanks Todd! Sounds like you found a great way to deal with the "mouse stink". At the time I was breeding mice I was useing aspen for their bedding, but it just got to be too much and too many mice for feeding then about 100 snakes, esp during the summer. Seemed like I would spend all day cleaning mice cages only to do it again a few days latter.

Scott D

I'm loving the new high-sided water dishes for exactly that reason!
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

I think once you get the water dish issue straightend out, you'll like the carefresh... you just have to be careful when you get down toward the bottom of the bag that you don't get all the dust in your snakes cage...

it doesn't look the greatest, but my snakes are doing great on it...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Mali Uromastyx
1.0 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha
1.0 Australian Shepherd

What about getting rid of substrate altogether? Cage carpet comes in a variety of colors...green, grey, brown...still makes the cage more "natural" looking and it can be washed in the machine?

just my 2 cents...not worth the copper they are made from