Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just getting back into milks. I have an adult Sinaloan male. I'm looking for an adult or sub-adult female for him also. I was wondering what those of you that keep Sinaloans use for substrate. Thanx. Any help greatly appreciated.

reako45

I use finely shredded aspen for everything I own now (boas, balls, kings, milks, and rats).

I've played around with a lot of differend substrates over the years and always go back to aspen.

Do you provide humid hides to prevent shed problems?

reako45

I've only ever provided humid hides for very young snakes. With everything else i've just misted twice a week normally and daily during the last half of their shed cycle.

using that method with dumeril's boas, argentine boas, balls, desert/cal/chain/gb kings, corns, glades rats, and black milks has never resulted in any shedding problems... i've never actually had a shedding problem with anything other than an extremly sick w/c adult ball.

I do provide large water bowls with plenty of water 24/7 though.

Wow! Thank you so much. I'm going to try that.

reako45

Where I live it gets quite dry during certain times of the year, and if I use aspen, a humid hide is a must.

I switched at that time to a substrate of coir fiber (Eco Earth or equiv)) mixed with playsand (or calci-sand - anything with sizeable grains). The sand helps hold burrow shapes better. Anyway, if you can stand the mess of having dirt, it makes for a killer substrate. Snakes won't dry out (they dig into it). Mist it occasionally. Great for thin-skinned snakes like milks.

I place it at about 4 inches deep, then attach a heat pad to the side of the cage or under it depending. But I like the stack idea better...

Gets all in the water bowl, but honestly with a substrate like this, I can offer water maybe once a week at most, and usually less frequently. IMO snakes ignore water bowls much of the time anyway unless you stick their face in it.