Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got my new baby ball yesterday at a reptile show. Right now i've got wood chips as the substrate but I think I should have put that ground up walnut stuff in there because it's alot better at heating up. I've got my bearded dragons on that walnut stuff and it works really well. Just thought I'd ask your opinions on what to use, thanks!

Greg
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And I hope the wood chips you are using are not pine or rodent wood chips?

MANY different substrates can be used effectively. Cypress mulch, newspaper, orchid bark, etc etc. But not sand, and not pine wood chips.

Just wanted to check I didnt know pine was bad, I just thought cedar. Are pine shavings different from aspen? Thanks for any input!

Pine is waaaaay different. There are two kinds of trees:

1) Hardwoods (angiosperms). These are generally ok to use.
2) Softwoods (gymnosperms). These are no good. The extractives from the lumens from these trees are used to make TURPENTINE! The phenols from these trees, which include pine, fir, and cedar are mega-toxic. Avoid them.

Aspen is a hardwood. Hardwoods are deciduous. That is, they lose their leaves over winter. Broad-leaved trees. Maples, birch, aspen, poplar, etc etc. Those are fine.
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You should take your dragons off of the walnut substrate. The stuff is dangerous. Do a search on it on the BD forum.

As for the BP. Cypress mulch, aspen shavings, or paper.

Thanks for the clarification about what trees are good and bad. The wood chips I was using was made from fir trees and as soon as I read your post I cleaned it all out and am now using newspaper, thanks again!

And thank you for actually caring about your Ball Python and asking REAL questions, and then acting on them promptly. The Ball Python world needs more new owners like you. For sure.