Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a beautiful baby (only a few months) "blairs" grey banded kingsnake at the IRBA show in San Diego this past weekend (she is one of the most beautiful GBK's I've ever seen!). When gathering supplies most of the breeders recommended Reptile Depot for supplies. I have used them before and found them to be very helpful and informative, carry a very wide range of good products, and have competative prices; so I had no problem buying supplies from them. They recommended using "Sani-Chips" as her substrate. She seems to like burrowing through it and it seems to be a very comfortable and dust-free substrate. Today I was reading through some posts and looking at GBK caresheets and some were recommending bark as a substrate because Sani-Chips are harmful; and some were recommending Sani-Chips as safe and a good substrate; and others said both good and bad. I was wondering if I should keep her on "Sani-Chips" or switch her to bark? Please, any info would be helpful because I need to know if this stuff is safe or if it will impact her if she accidentally eats it!
Thanks for the info!

I use sani-chips for all of my snakes (mostly GBK's), even the babies. However, I *always* move the smaller snakes (less than 2 years old) into separate containers with no bedding at all when feeding to avoid ingestion of the chips. As for my larger, older snakes, none have had any problems with ingesting sani-chips.

That's exactly what I wanted to know!
Thank you for the info!