Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so what does everyone use?i have been using B&W newspaper for all my reptiles for years.

We have used newspaper years ago, but find the shredded aspen to be less hassle and easy to work with even with as many animals as we have.

Cherryville Farms - Reptiles

i used newspaper for a bit, but found that to be a hassel. I like aspen. Works for me and is cheap enough with a few snakes
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"The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an egg-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

1.0 Albino Argentina Horned "Pacman" Frog
0.1 Pyxie/African Bull frog
1.1 Albino and Snow Bullsnakes

yeah i am finding,that the pits eat and crap more frequently than say my boids..so maybe i'll try aspen.
thanks guys.

I've been using eco-earth, I don't know for sure, but I've read that aspen can harbor mites, never had a problem with them..I even feed on it...spot cleaning is easy because it's dark and the stools are easy to find..the only problem I have with it is it's hard to see my MBKs and blackpines when they're on it and I like my animals to be displayed. May go to aspen for them.
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Richard Evans

no not THAT one

I don't notice any difference in a practical sense (as I'm staring at a big gob my Texas bull just left behind; I'll remove it tomorrow after it's dried). I like the appearance of Repti-Bark, and here in a dry climate I think it holds moisture better for snakes I mist before and during their sheds; my pits don't seem to have difficult sheds, but my corns and milks can be problematic (it's actually worse in the fall and spring because in summer I use a swamp cooler that raises the humidity). Not that a bad shed is a real problem since a soak and a damp wash rag has always proven effective . . .

Others have spoken highly of Carefresh, and I'm sure it works well and isn't likely to cause problems if ingested (I don't worry about that one because I feed outside in separate plastic tubs).

Shredded aspen is just a tad more expensive than Repti-bark, and I use it on juvenile snakes, but I've used Repti-bark for five years no with no problems.

I switched to newspaper from aspen. I once purchased aspen with mites in it. Also I hated the aspen getting stuck in the sliding tracks of that cage doors.Cleaning out aspen that gets behind the cages and in every crevice of my snake room was also annoying. I like just changing out the whole sheet of newpaper because it makes less of a mess.

Just a note-the mites you sometimes get with aspen (and other wood products) are completely harmless to your snakes.

I can't imagine going back to newspaper-aspen's advantages are overwhelming, particularly with a large collection!
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

The mites were not the harmless ones because my snakes stopped eating. I had to treat them before they started eating again.

causation. If your snakes got harmful mites, then they did NOT come from the aspen. The only mites that live in wood products are wood mites, which not only do not, but CAN not hurt your snakes. Snake mites can only live on and around snakes, and feed only on snake blood, not wood. It's impossible for them to have come in on commercial aspen products.
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Brad..what if somebody bought a bag of aspen from a petstore that had reptiles with a mite infestion?..sounds feasible to me
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Richard Evans

no not THAT one

Well, only in the unlikely event that the bag were somehow opened in the store. (and was stored very close to the reptiles). Not a likely scenario.

I personally owned a reptile and bird specialty pet store for many years, and it never happened that I'm aware of. But I can assure you that the wood mites happen all the time-and most folks panic over them as if they were snake mites!
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

I'm with Brad, I've gotten aspen bedding off and on for years from a pet store that can get the real big bags (when I can't get it from my prefered source). I see wood mites in it at times but have not seen a black snake mite at my house in close to 10 years and the time I did it didn't come from the bedding. The pet store keeps their bedding only 20 feet away from snakes that come from places I'm sure I don't even want to know about but never a black snake mite in the bedding. I'm not saying it can't happen but it's not the likely source. I will say that I NEVER buy a open bag of bedding just to be safe.

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Randy Whittington

Can wood mites effect eating? I am not sure myself. I just know I feed my snakes f/t food that I order online and I had no new snakes in my collection. I had one bull I could see little black buggers running around on him. I purchased the aspen from Walmart.

Did you crush any of the mites to see if they contained blood? A Walmart aspen ourchase would be even LESS likely to introduce snake mites, since Walmart does not sell reptiles.

Remember, by the time a mite infestation is noticed, it has usually been ongoing for several months-it takes a while for a couple of mites to build up to a noticeable infestation...
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Regardless of what kind of mites they are, I prefer not bringing any kind of insects into my house. I stick with the blueprint paper I get from work or news paper. I use paper towels on the smaller shoe box size boxes. Free paper will always beat spending money on something to throw in the trash in my books.

I myself have been using newspaper for years with great results, and even though I like aspen, as far as the looks of it, I could never see myself going back to it.
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Genesis 1:1

I like aspen, I think the snakes like it too, the neos and yearlings use it to burrow in and it is easy to see the poop. I had a problem 6 yers ago with mites but caught it early and in one cage. No mites since. The adults use it to shed as well.
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Todd Hughes

I've been a big proponent of newspaper, but now I wonder about "flat" substrates in general. Snakes are physiologically well-suited for dwelling in or on textured substrates. I've started to wonder what it does to them to not have some variation in texture besides plastic and newspaper.

My affinis loves hiding under newspaper, but my concern above made me use a substrate instead.

I use some aspen, throw in some dry pine shavings, toss in some reptile bark. Mix it up, and it works very well. I like the way pine holds moisture (and the low price), but too much pine and the smell is too strong. The aspen dilutes the pine very well. The bark in there also holds a bit of humidity and provides a different texture. I can't really tell if the snake cares or not, but she doesn't hiss as much now (of course that could be a result of a variety of factors..)
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Mark

I guess it is all personal preference. However I am concerned with the animals ingesting aspen so I use newspaper and have for close to 35 years.

Adam