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Just my thoughts on newspaper. All newspapers are bleached white using chlorine. When the snakes urea mixes with this a toxic gas is the result. I would guess frequent changing avoids this, but if you're away for a few weeks the buildup can affect your snakes, especially babies. There are alternative papers to use where chlorine is not used: Paper towels, napkins sold in health stores, whole food markets, etc., where no bleaching of any kind is used.

Mike

Thanks for the tip Mike. Hope you didn't find out about it's toxic effects the hard way.
Nathan Wells

No, just info garnered from the internet.

I will have to disagree with this...

I use paper towels with my hatchlings, but I have been using newspaper with all of my sub adult and adult animals for nearly 20 years and i can't even remember the last time i had an unexplained death or sickness???

Although, over the years i have heard of countless impactation problems and deaths from keepers that use beach sand, wood chips, corn cob bedding, calci-sand, etc... In my opinion newspaper is safe and perfectly fine to use.

~ Mike Russo

yea....we drink chlorine all the time in water, pools ......

remember setting the water for the fish tank out for 24 hours to llet the chlorine go away from it before adding it to the tank?......
(I have a well......I drink different problems than chlorine)LOL

......anyways...I use bleach to clean all my water bowls ...well..to kill the stuff in them after I clean them a few times.....then I clean with soap again then usually rinse......

I have added uric acid balls from ball pythons to bleach to see what happened,,,,it wasn't much of a deal......didn't create mustard gas at all I don't think.....smelled like bleach....maybe dirty bleach?........I gotta try it again.......LOL......

.
......don't worry about it.....we all use paper......
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.

Bleach has a bacterial kill ratio of 75-80%, while vinegar is in the 90's. It's the only cleaner I use. Add a little lemon juice for a nicer "smell". Non-toxic and safer for the animals and environment. Otherwise use plain peroxide sold in drugstores.

mike

Do you use pure vinegar or do you mix it with water? Do you let it sit in the cage for a few minutes or do you just clean and rinse? I may have to start using vinegar. It sounds like its working very well for you.

Thanks,
Dan

What chemical reaction are you talking about exactly? Chlorine and urea?? I don't thing that makes a toxic gas. And even if it did there is another problem with your theory. Chlorine might be used to dye newsprint but it evaporates quickly. There is very little if any chlorine left in your newspaper.

I know many keepers that have bred many generations of snakes in poorly ventilated racks with newspaper substrate.

With that said I still don't think newspaper is a great substrate. I think that people who keep fossorial snakes on paper are doing their snakes a disservice. Just my 02, not trying to call anyone out...

Having a paper shredder makes it a whole different ball game.

is using aspen as substrate and giving the animals either sheets of newspaper or paper towels for security and hiding. I have never experienced any problems with keeping newspaper in cages however, I am quite meticulous when it comes to cleaning. As far as disinfecting cages and water bowels, I have used Chlorhexidine Solution over the last 15 years and have been very happy with the results. It is much less evasive than bleach, which burns the hell out of my eyes and hands.
Nathan

>>Just my thoughts on newspaper. All newspapers are bleached white using chlorine. When the snakes urea mixes with this a toxic gas is the result. I would guess frequent changing avoids this, but if you're away for a few weeks the buildup can affect your snakes, especially babies. There are alternative papers to use where chlorine is not used: Paper towels, napkins sold in health stores, whole food markets, etc., where no bleaching of any kind is used.
>>
>>Mike

Wikipedia what your are saying inst actually correct as far as bleaching using chlorine.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleaching_of_wood_pulp
Newspaper is made by mechanical Pulps and bleached using Alkaline hydrogen peroxide.
A snip from the article;
"The brightness gains achieved in bleaching mechanical pulps are temporary since almost all of the lignin present in the wood is still present in the pulp. Exposure to air and light can produce new chromophores from this residual lignin.[6] This is why newspaper yellows as it ages."

I have been using newspaper for almost 20 years with NO ill affects on any of my snakes. These include snakes with higher humidity requirements and snakes with lower humidity requirements.
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Jason A.
"Long time Herper, first year Breeder `07."
My 2008 Care Sheet & The BRB Stats. Username: brb@kingsnake.com