Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, new to corns got everything ready except a substrate what do you think the best one would be that would work well in a natural looking envoirment

repti-bark.

I use it in all 6 of my tanks with snakes ranging from ball python to corns to my green tree...

I've been using it in my corn tanks for two years now and I've never, ever had a bad shed out of any corn.

A few tips for using it:
1.) Find a good way to strain the reptibark because it is very dusty out of the bag. I've never had RI problems with the dust but it always makes me feel good to run water over the chips and completely soak them.

2.) Lay a few layers of newspaper down in the tank first, it will decrease smell by a half. Since I started using newspaper under everything people can't believe how smell-less my reptile room is.

3.) Use at least a 2 or 3" deep layer of the bark. Don't be stingy, the snakes can burrow if they want and when they poop you can just scoop it out like you would with a cat and keep on going.

4.) After about 6 months or a year just change out the entire tank and put fresh in.

ALSO, in addition to the repti-bark I highly suggest going to a fabric store or something close and looking over their fake plant selections. I bought some AMAZING looking fake plants at joann fabrics and the snakes LOVE hiding in them more than the half-logs.

Good luck

You're right, for plants and vines fabric and craft stores are the place to go! When I got my first herp (a water dragon) I bought a vine from a reptile/pet store and paid about 10$ for it. I saw the exact same vine at the craft store for 2$! They have a million to choose from and the snakes do love hiding in them.

I use carefresh as a substrate, and they seem to love that as well. The anery pretty much disapears in the gray carefresh, and it's soft and easy to clean. I haven't had any smells in my snakes since using it either.
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Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

Diane,

Mind if I ask what you pay for one of the big bags of Carefresh? I would love to use it in my snake enclosures, but it sooo expensive. The local Petco sells the big bags for $18.99, and I found a farm supply store that sells them for $12.99. I'm just wondering if it gets any cheaper than that. It would probably take me 8-10 bags to clean everyone once, which is way more expensive than two bales of aspen. Right now I'm using Carefresh on the few mice that I breed, and I love it!

Thanks,
Ronda
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Ronda Van Winkle
Northwest Herpetoculture

I think I pay about 16$ for the biggest bag of it. It really goes a long way I think. But I only have it in my 4 of my cages. The snakes love it though, and it's so easy to clean and keep that way. Here's my Anery showing how great it is for camaflauge(sp) lol

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Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

Though I am pretty new to corns, I have found using aspen shaving over a layer of papertowel is working well for me. However I recommend misting the cage around shed time to make things a bit easier for your snake.

I use the outdoor section of my local newspaper.

n/m
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Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents