Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone here use this? My Ball Pythons, no matter what kind of hide box is provided (terra cotta, black pvc t-joint, cardboard box, etc.) still choose to bury themselves under sheets of newspaper. I figure with shredded newspaper, you still get the sterile substrate, but now they'll start using their hideboxes. Plus i don't have to dig them out at feeding time. Any thoughts?

Chris
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0.1 Normal
0.2 Het Piebald
1.0 Reduced Pattern
0.1 Banded
0.1 Screaming Child

I don't use it mainly because it is too much of a pain for me to clean and it would be something they could injest then so feeding would also be a pain. I have too many tanks to keep for than much hassle. If you have a light load of snakes then go for it but i still would not like that they could burrow onto where the heat pad is so i would make sure that is covered will with something they cannot get under.

Well, I don't actually use a heat pad. I've got the back-heated jason's Jungle rack, so burrowing into excess heat wouldn't be a problem. I didn't think about the digestion of newspaper shreds, though. Thanks for the heads up. I guess i'll just tolerate their wanting to bury themselves under sheets of newspaper instead of using the hides.

Thanks,
Chris
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0.1 Normal
0.2 Het Piebald
1.0 Reduced Pattern
0.1 Banded
0.1 Screaming Child

As far as shredded, I'd say no. Ingestion was already mentioned, but I would think a bigger problem would be dust. Shredded paper tends to be horribly dusty, and I wouldn't want my snakes to have to breath in that dust.

Mine occasionally get under the paper, but a nice, secure, heavy hide can minimize it. I also use full sections of newspaper so there's only one overlapping part in the tub (less seams for them to poke around at). Most of my snakes have plastic-bowl hides that I bought in big set at wally world. They're very light and get pushed around a lot, but I still don't have much problem with the snakes going under the paper. It *does* happen sometimes, but it's rare (now watch them ALL be under it tonight). Make sure you have proper temps, the snakes are well fed, and the hides are a good fit for them (they like them tight) - that's about all you can do.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

I use the entire sheets for all size cages.
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RicK @ BbI

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