Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just wanted to hear everyone opinion on which bedding is the best for whatever reasons that they use on mountain kings?
I, in the past, have used larger aspen shaves, and never saw my snakes dig around or do anything. I currently am using the Teklad Sani chips which is a super tiny aspen chipping that is steam autoclaved. I have heard some say that this will get in their snakes mouths but have not seen this yet and did not think one or two pieces of it were an issue, at least not as much as a larger piece of the other bedding, plus my snakes dig in it now.

I have a friend who raises colubrids and boas and he swears by the Sani chips.
I use the Katie aspen, but recently have switched over to the shredded aspen, which is softer. My snakes burrow in both just fine, although the tunnels seem to hold together better with the shredded versus the flaked.

The shredded in service. I like to give them three to four inches to tunnel around in.
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

Does he feed inside or out of cage and is he worried about pet eating the sani chips ??? My mt kings wont eat out of their cage.

He has so many snakes he feeds in the cage. Nobody has ingested any chips, or if they have, have not been injured. If the food item is wet the chips would tend to stick to it, so maybe if you dry it first that would help.

I feed all my snakes in feeding tubs except for Zola, who is getting her food in a cup(that is what she is checking out) because she is my only snake feeding now and it is really cold right now so after she eats she can immediately return to her warm hide.

She inhales them right out of the cup; they never get any bedding on them. Perhaps you could put some sort of feeding cup in the cage for your shy snakes. The cup keeps the food from wandering away (I feed mostly live pinks and fuzzies).
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

I swear by cypress mulch mixed with Kitty Krumble, a coconut husk based cat litter safe for reptiles. This mix holds humidity really well, looks awesome, and holds up burrows. I also have clumps of LF sphagnum in the tanks, too.

leanweb.org/press-room/media-release/wal-mart-to-stop-selling-cypress-mulch-from-loui.html
Some controversy about cypress mulch.

Could one mix the coconut husk kitty litter with aspen? The Kitty's Crumble All Natural Coconut Husk Cat Litter is sort of expensive. I kind of like the idea of odor absorption for my bull snakes, though.
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

Did not realize that about the harvest of Cypress mulch.

Kitty Crumble expensive? Really? We sell it at my work (a small, local pet shop specializing in birds and reptiles) for about $12 for a huge bag of it!

For some of the snake tanks at work, especially the African house snakes (Lamprophis [spelling]?) and some of the younger/smaller Lampropeltis, we sometimes mix the crumble and/or peat with the aspen to help with managing the humidity. Plus, smells kinda good too!

Kitty Crumble expensive? Really? We sell it at my work (a small, local pet shop specializing in birds and reptiles) for about $12 for a huge bag of it!
How big is this huge bag? Could you post the UPC or item number?
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

Dont have mtn kings, but do have other kings and only kings.
I use the small aspen chips. I feed all my animals IN their
cages and have never had a problem. For hatchlings i use paper
towel, just for convenience.
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Chris - TX

2.2 Splendida
1.1 Nigrita
1.1 Ruthveni
0.0.3 277 Alterna

Its a messy substrate, but it works very well. The coir can be dampened for humidity when needed and the sand gives it better heat conduction and overall nice consistency.

Coir is that shredded coconut husk stuff sold in pet stores. Any sand will work really. Get the roundest sand you can that has a decent particle size. I just use calcium sand because it is available and does the job.
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Mark