Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone ever try shredded paper, like from a paper shredder?

I have been using sterlized commercial bark and I think it is damaging the head scales of my snakes as they burrow into it.
(I have Elaphe, Pituophis and Lampropeltis).

I prefer aspen. Lets animals dig and tunnel and is pretty safe and cheap. Andy
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

I agree, aspen is great, and from my experience, cheaper than the commercial bark materials and such that are used in the herp industry.

I have my corn snake on aspen and he burrows through it and makes elaborate tunnels and such. I haven't noticed any adverse affects, either.

I'm not a fan of newspaper in any form. It retains water, sticks to everything and gets dirty fast. Plus there is the ink issue.
I use aspen frequently and I like it for "typical" snakes like rats and kings. For some of my larger snakes, cypress mulch works as well. If high moisture is a requirement, I prefer spagnum. Maybe it's me but it seems like there is something medicinal about moss. On the other extreme; my cerastes (horned viper and sidewinder)and other "arid" burrowers do great on just clean sand.
The one medium I really hate to see is ground corn cob. Too many mouthrot problems there. Also cedar and some pine are bad for respiratory.
Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

"On the other extreme; my cerastes (horned viper and sidewinder)and other "arid" burrowers do great on just clean sand."

What about sand adhereing to the food and impacting their digestive tracts? Do you feed them in another container?

One of my snakes is an Arizona Desert King and I was reluctant to use sand in his enclosure.