Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there any danger in using very absorbent paper towels as substrate? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have never had this happen to me personally because I don't use paper towels, I prefer folded up newspapers for newborn boas. But I have heard of instances where baby boas can accidently get wrapped up in the paper towel and accidently eat it while eating a meal. The paper towels are easily folded up into a small area, especially when wet, and can accidently be ingested if the paper towel gets caught on the food item.

This can obviously cause a laundry list of problems which may include death. I prefer to just fold newspaper to the proper size and lay it down. Much heavier and thick material, nearly impossible to be swallowed

As NUCCIZ_BOAS stated there are some risks with using paper towels. In order to avoid the catastrophe of a boa swallowing a paper towel, I simply watch them when they eat. As long as they don't wrap the paper towel up when they strike their prey item, then there is nothing to worry about it. It can be time consuming to monitor if you have a large collection, but if you have a small collection you should be fine.

I keep my albino babies all on paper towels instead of newspaper as it's hard to sell an albino or sunglow with ink all over it. I also keep all of my adult males on either paper towels or unprinted newspaper if it's available. I prefer both of these over shavings so as to not cause a possible hemipenis infection in my males. I do keep my sub adult females on aspen shavings that sit on top of newspaper for easier cleaning. I hope this helps.

-Anthony