Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK Fellas, i've just purchased a beautiful Mexican Black Kingsnake and i'm new to snakes. What's a good substrate to use. Currently i'm using crushed walnut. What do you think of Calci-Sand? Any suggestions?

I use and like Bed-a-Beast. It looks natural, they can burrow and you can feed on it. Many also use shredded aspen or aspen chips.
-----
Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python "Aragorn"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa "Gimli"
1.0 Saharan Sand Boa "Frodo"
0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa "Arwen"
0.1 California Kingsnake "Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Indigo"
1.0 Snow Corn snake "Chile"

0.0.1 Crested Gecko
0.0.1 Irian Jaya BlueTongued Skink

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

I prefer to use carefresh. It seems to work well although it's a bit more expensive, it clumps easily for quick cleanups and the snakes can burrown in it as well. Hope that helps.
Josh

I use aspen bedding. You can get a HUGE bag for like 5-7bucks and it's totally safe for your reptile.They love to burrow under it and it's dust free. Just spot clean it and change the entire bedding once every 2 weeks or so.You can even go longer then two weeks before fully changing it.

I use carefresh for my ferrets but my snakes don't seem to like it.Even though it says it is dust free I feel it has more dust then most aspen beddings. When I ran out of aspen bedding and needed to change two of my snakes subtrates I used carefresh. Both were sneezing later that night ... I haven't used it since but some people have had good luck with it as the poster above mentioned.

hey sull i use chushed walnut as well for all 3 snakes i have 2 cali kings 1 garter well my big cali king dosent sneeze but my baby sneezed 2 times but that was 2 minutes before she shed. i havent noticed any other sneezing since is it bad but it also says dust free and i havent seen any could it be because she was geting ready to shed??

thanks in advance

Dylan

I buy very cheap, filtered river sand. A large bag costs me about $4 at a landscaping company nearby.

I foolishly bought Care Fresh for years, then found this much cheaper alternative. When it's time to clean, you just scoop out the "offending" section with a spoon. The sand will last for weeks between major changes. (No need to buy expensive sand from some pet store; find a landscaping company.)

Besides, Sonoran Blacks come from the Sonoran Desert, which is mostly gravel, rock and sand. A vivarium setup with sand, rocks and wood mimics their native environment.

I use #2/12 grit, kign dryed, dust free sand, for about 7 or 8 bucks for a 100 lb bag. You don't want any fine sand because it assorbs to much, and the moisture spreads out to far, more clean up.

-----
rbichler