Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to get some opinions on the setup i use for most of my snakes, bedding wise, because i just read something on the directions for a heatpad i just got for a new enclosure for one of my juvenile sand boas. It basically said not to use newspaper as the substrate over the heating pad. The setup i use currently, and have used since i have had all my snakes for the past five years, involves using a piece of terrarium liner, then laying a couple pieces of newspaper over the liner, and then laying aspen shavings over the newspaper, and i haven't had a single issue with this method, but now my father is convinced that a fire could ensue with the newspaper. Do i need to be concerned about the newspaper possibly catching fire? Obviously i do not want to endanger my animals in anyway!!! I would love to hear your opinions

Chrissy

why don't you just use the aspen and forget the other stuff then you don't have to worry about the newspaper.
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Jason

The ignition point of dry newspaper is quite a bit higher than you would think (look it up yourself since I forgot the temperature). Your cage would have to be dangerously hot for the snake for newspaper to catch fire.

Do you use a lamp dimmer to keep the heat pad at a comfortable level? Or a thermostat? That would be a very good idea for the safety of the snake.

A great buffer at the bottom of a glass tank is ceramic tile. On top of that, you can put newspaper or aspen. The tile acts as a heat mass to more evenly distribute the heat generated by the heater so the animal above doesn't see intensely warm spots. And tile won't burn. So the substrate above it won't either.
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Mark