Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Time to move the '02 erebennus from her box to a "show tank" as she has grown nicely. No more newspaper for her. All I use now for my hogs and dry's is cypress mulch. Stuff dries out pretty well, so humidity shouldn't be a problem in a tank with a screen lid, shoulD IT?

anyone use it for their erebennus?

A.C.

I use cypress mulch in the hideboxes of my Texas babies and most of my cribos. The only reason I don't use it for the entire cage is because I think it would be difficult to spot clean an indigo's cage. They seem to spread their poop everywhere and newspaper is just easier to keep clean.
I use cypress mulch for my red tegus and I notice that if it drys out it creates a dust that gets all over everything...especially when they're digging in it and stirring it up. 10 minute's after filling their water bowl it's dirty and full of mulch. (this might not be a problem with indigos though)
Chris

Hey Chris,

I've used cypress with Texans with no problems, but I like to get it dried out a bit first.

Personally, I'm using dried cypress in the open area of the cages and newspaper in the hide area, and I feed in the hide area, to avoid injestion.

Dean, we must think in similar but different ways...I do just the opposite (newspaper covers the entire floor while my hide boxes/egg laying chambers are filled with several inches of moistened cypress). But, obviously, both ways work quite well and the concept is the same. I am still experimenting with aspen bedding in several of my cages and so far, I haven't experienced the terrible ammonia odors that everyone alludes to; time will tell.

Rob,

I just made the switch back to news paper.

How are the new snakes doing? Also, how's the female doing?

Eric

I use cypress mulch in the open end of my big cages, but I put it in a big Rubbermaid tub. I have newspaper in the hide end of the cage. My Dry's spend a good bit of time in the tub with the mulch. That way, they still have plenty of room to crawl around be cause the tub only takes up about 1/4 of the area in the open end, and they don't end up getting mulch in the water, plus it's easier to clean up. I use newspaper on the floor under the tub.

In my smaller (4 foot) cages, they are designed to take a big Rubbermaid or Sterilite tub that covers the whole side of the cage, so 2 of them actually serve as the cage chambers. (It's hard to explain). On those, the hide end has the mulch and the open end has newspaper.

I like the tubs because it makes cleaning and sterilizing a whole lot faster and easier. The snakes don't seem to mind at all.

The female is coming along well. As long as I stick to small prey, she does just fine. The pair of easterns are doing great...very impressive animals.

I think I'll try dried up cypress mulch after all. Newspaper stinks for dry's. It's too messy when they poop and the odor is too strong. I've liked cypress thus far.

A.C.