Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, this is my first post here, however I have been reading a lot of the other posts.

I am having a hard time deciding what kind of substrate to use for my ball python that I will be purchasing in the next few months. For a while I was set on paper towels because they would be easy to clean, but I have seen a few pics on here of wood (or bark) shavings and they look great! I was wondering if these are a big pain to keep clean? Also how often do you guys completely sanatize your tanks?

Should I get a different enclosure to give him his meals? I plan on feeding thawed mice at first and then moving on to rats. The reason I want to do this is because I heard it may make him nicer to hold and not strike me. Any suggestions?

Thanks
D LinK

The wood you have seen is probably either aspen or cypress mulch.. When you use the wood bedding it is nice because you can spot clean as needed and do a full cleaning a couple times a month or so. Regarding feeding in another enclosure I have never seen it keep a snake calm, but that is a preferance thing. I suggest always feeding in the enclosure (unless breeding and have multiple animals in the enclosure) You just place a sheet of paper down on the substrate, place the feeder on the paper and come back later and remove the paper after they have fed.
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

Substrate - I personally use reptibark (washed and treated for mites)as I have a large cage and it works best for keeping the temperature and humidity right. If I had a rack or smaller cage, I think I would go with cypress, it's cheap and you can pick it up at home depot. Either way, it's not really hard to spot clean. And I wash it out every week or so and change it every month or so depending on how it looks, feels and smells.

Feeding - I feed in a separate box, I fed my previous python for 20 years in a separate box and didn't have any problems with her. Now, I have two in my cage so it's a necessity. I've seen nothing that would indicate that this is stressful for them nor have any of them had any eating issues. I have however seen plenty of people that feed inside their cages get bit by their snakes thinking they were a meal.
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Tosha

1.1.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy)
0.1.0 Siberian Husky (Kita)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
5.4.2 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

In my opinion paper towels work great, quick easy and inexpensive. I use a watered down solution of water and alcohol 12 to 1 works great. I was using bleach when I first started many years ago and was told not too by a few Large breeders and even asked my vet. He told me not to use it so I switched. As far as feeding, I am a rat person I start my balls off on rat pinkies and so on up as they grow.

great thanks for the replies