Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yeah, the economic troubles have hit me, so I'm trying to cut corners. I was thinking about using some sort of towel or cloth for my snakes, since I'll be saving quite a bit of money that I would be spending on all those bags of cypress and aspen mulch I get every month. I have heard horror stories of large pythons swallowing towels and such, but the largest snakes I have are a ball and a rainbow boa, and if I monitor their feeding, which I do anyway, I don't see a problem. Plus I figure I can wash the towels every week and use them indefinately. As long as I keep them a hide with moist moss in it, which I also do anyway, I don't see a problem there either. I can't use the "repi-rugs" or whatever they are called, as all my snakes are in custom built plastic "display-like" cages. Any advice or feedback is most welcome and appreciated.

They should be functional, but I suspect you'll find cleaning them to be such a chore that you'll be looking for another alternative soon.

Do any of your neighbors get the newspaper? If you're on good terms they would probably be happy to save them for you.
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

My vet officially recommends the use of newspaper or paper towels because there is much lower rick of bacteria and zero chance of accidental ingestion of substrate. Except with hatchlings, this is not my personal preference, but as long as you can maintain proper humidity and it's what you want to do, then it should not be a problem for the snakes. All the species I keep are major burrowers so I like to give them a substrate they can burrow in -- with some extra hides I'm sure they'd be content on towels.

Fabric vs. paper should not make a big difference either. The nice thing about paper towels or newspaper is that you don't have to clean them, just replace them. If you have a washer and dryer in your house/apartment then it may be easier to go with your original idea.

I have also heard of large snakes eating their blankets before but in those cases the blankets were heated by electricity and probably smelled like the latest meal. I can understand why the snake would make such a mistake, especially if the blanket got balled up...

I tried wet towels on a big boa during rather dry weather here to boost humidity. That idea worked very well. I went on to use the towels as the only substrate.

As the others mentioned, washing those towels soon became a chore, and I wonder how economical it really is using a washing machine. So I went to dimpled Kraft paper instead, and used a wet towel in a bucket in the cage to help with humidity. Better solution for me.

Newspaper is cheap and really is a good substrate. Because the snakes can get under the newspaper, it holds humidity better than many wood chip substrates.

The Kraft paper can be found at uline.com. I spent around $60 and got a huge box of precut pieces - enough to last many months.
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Mark

NO WAY. I'd never use fabric towels. I'm all in favor of cutting costs. That's why I use the best substrate in the world newspaper. Anyone can afford to use newspaper. In the long run the newspaper would have to cost less than washing the towels. And huge risks involved in using fabric towels. Even hatchlings have been known to get their teeth tangled up in towels and not be able to get loose. The question to use towels is a big NO. IMHO.

My eastern milk has a skin problem, so I have a folded up towel in her enclosure for the moment.

She eats exclusively in my hands, so there is no possible risks involved with her teeth or accidental ingestion.

If all you want to do is cut costs, good ol newspaper hands down.
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Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
Dances With Reptiles
Thamnophis

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0.1.9 Eastern MilkSnake WC "Carmella" adult super sweet temperment (Eggs all hatched!)
1.3.13 Storeria dekayi - Brown Snakes Casper, Xena, Athena, Copper, Sharon & Kids
0.1.0 Thamnophis cyrtopsis Easter Black Neck Garter "MoJo"
0.2.0 Thamnophis ordinoides - Northwestern Gartersnake(Blue Phase)
1.1.0. Thamnophis elegans vagrans Wandering Garter
2.2.0 Thamnophis Sirtalis - Florida Blue stripe Garter
2.1.0 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garters
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0.0.7 Thamnophis sirtalis - Eastern Garter babies 7/11/08
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0.1.0 Thamnophis sirtalis Eastern Snow "Snowflake"
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis California Red Sided (R.I.P. little guy)
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua" adult WC Pink eater!
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Sub-adult CB
1.0.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major"Limon"
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER" Getting Huge!
1.1.3. Green Anole "Crystal" & "Chris"
0.1.0 Oscar (Astronotus ocellatus) - "Peach" (A Monitor with fins)
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
0.2.0. Feline"Felix"(R.I.P. 4/27/08) "Kaja" & "Silver"
2.1.0. calico RATS
??.??.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish / Giant roaches
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

Similiar to towels, I use cage carpet you can get at any petstore....they don't fray like towels so your snake won't get stuck or strangled...plus the go in the washer/dryer and don't shrink.

Mitch,

I agree with what most of the other guys here have said: go with newspaper. If you're having trouble finding it, try going to a school and asking for it. My wife is a teacher and she brings home so much newspaper that I sometimes have to ask her to stop! Her teacher friends find it easier to give me the newspapers they get in their classrooms and the library than driving it down to the recycling center.

On washing towels: I would wash snake towels in the same washer I use for my clothing. I think bacteria could survive and spread to your clothing.
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http://www.mikefoux.com
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the repti rugs at the pet store are a total scam, for about 5 bucks you can get a twelve foot piece of indoor outdoor carpet (the same stuff the repti rugs are made out of) at home depot or lowes (plus it comes in different colors). you can cut it to size and have several pieces that you can just swap out when you need to clean your cage. these can also be tossed in the washer (and don't bother putting it in the dryer, water pretty much goes right through this stuff, it is almost dry to the touch after the spin cycle). plus it looks much nicer than newspaper or old towels. I've been using it for about a year now on my 3 snakes, and wont ever go back to aspen, carefresh, or anything else.
m.
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..1 Jayne "The Hero of Canton", Ball Python
..1 Edmund Slackbladder, Mexican Kingsnake
..1 El Diablo "They haven't built a cage I can't get out of" Pueblan Milksnake
(Currently serving 25 to life in a Maryland Supermax
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Me; And finally monsieur a wafer thin pinkie
El Diablo: blaggh
Me: ah sir its only 1 leetle pink one
ED: ahh, sod off! I'm full
Me: ah sir hmm? its only wafer thin?
ED: bah! i couldn't eat another thing I'm absolutely stuffed. bugger off!
Me: ah sir, sir just ...just one......?
ED: ok just one
Me just the one.
Me: voila!
Me: bon appetite!.......