Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This really isnt' necessary to be posting in the venomous forum as it is not species specific, but venomous snake keepers should be experienced so I figured I would have some good answers. If not I can always post this in the ball python forum : ) Anyway, I really just want to know why it is a bad idea to use paper towels. Is it because bleaching really will cause a huge risk. Or is there something I am missing? I have never used them before but recently (last night) I just got a bit tired while cleaning out ink stains from wet newspaper when some anacondas spilled their water. I threw in white paper towels for the time being. Do I need to get them out of there? They seem a lot easier to clean up with since I use the high quality bounty quilted roll. Thanks.

I've never heard of paper towels being bad. I know plenty of breeders house baby snakes on paper towels in plastic shoeboxes. I'm housing two baby solomon island ground boas on paper towels and have yet to encounter any problems.

Where'd you get this information from?

I do know of two different people who have lost young snakes from the animals ingesting sheets of paper towels.

How was paper towel consumed? I mean, it's one sheet, not little fragments. Was it contact with the paper towel and a food item that may have caused the deaths, or direct ingestion of the paper towel itself?

One was definitely being fed on the papertowel it consumed - not sure about the other one.

I've never heard of problems from paper towels (until the ione reply you just got). We've been using them for years with no problems that I can attribute to them. My only gripes are that they don't look as good as mulch or stay in place as well as newpaper (but they do look better than newspaper).

I prefer the brown builder's paper sold in the big rolls at the hardware store (when I'm not too lazy to cut it). Looks good, stays in place and very hard to swallowfor

I have never had any problems with papper towels or news papper but years ago I had a 10 ft. Burmes python that I was feeding chicken leg quarters. I was keeping the snakes on news papper and did not want the papper to stick to the chicken so I put 2 leg quarters on a folded up,full size bath towel to keep it off the news papper. The snake consumed the leg quarters and when I returned to check on him he had started on the towel and had it about 1/4 of the way in. It took some doing but I did get it out of his mouth. The towel smelt like chicken so he was going to eat it. You just have to watch them with anything that may confuse them or get stuck to thier food.. Good luck, Dean

THe way I put them in the tanks (or rack tubs) is by rolling them out the length of the enclosure. Two rows covers most enclosures I am using. I think I am going to go with this for a while and see how it works out. I always keep a close eye on snakes feeding and I started splitting up the days things are fed just for that reason. It can get hard keeping tabs on things when you have too many eating at once. Anyway, I don't even remember where I heard paper towels were a bad choice but I thought it was something to do with them having to be bleached white. I just wanted a second opinion because it really didn't seems like a realistic concern to me...but I am not a paper towel expert and I have not used them as substrate before. I am just sick of snakes spilling water and me cleaning up the ink and trying to make sure ink isn't on the snakes. Lets see how the heavy duty quilted quicker picker uppers work. Thanks again.

Have been using paper towles for years and have never had a problem. I use the unprinted kind. I have used paper towels for every thing from neonates to adults.

Eunectes,

I have raised about 15 species of elapid, 7 python and a couple of colubrid on paper towels, and never had any problems.

I have had yearling Death Adders and a two year old Coastal Taipan ingest parts of a sheet of paper towel without any ill effects.

I use a plain patterned, cheapest sort of towel on the market.

I find it great, as it absorbs and retains any liquid until its reached its maximum absorbion point and then creates a humid enviroment...this feature I often exploit when juvenile snakes are coming up to shed....spray the paper towel with water when the snakes "in blue" and then little shed problems.

I have also used it on young varanids, agamids, skinks and geckos. However with the Dragons and monitors their claws then to shred the paper creating more mess than say cat litter would. Also with lizards you need to keep an eye on their claw length..because surface it not abrasive they don't wear down.

With a name like Eunectes I assume that you are looking at keeping your name sake on paper.....maybe use astro turf instead (fake grass)....as it has a rubber base and the "grass" is plastic. The water from the Anacondas movement won't stuff it....For easy maintaince have two pieces of turf per cage...when one is fouled swap it with a clean one, take the fouled one and hose it clean for reuse.

Regards,
Scott Eipper

I was actually planning on using them primarily for a ball python rack and some arborials. I figured the sterilte tubs would be easy to clean if I was using paper towels. I thought the arborial cages would look nicer with white paper towels than they would with news paper. I also factored in the humidity like you mentioned. I was worried more in the rack because if the bleach was a problem...there is less ventalation even with all the holes I have drilled. I believe it is to do with them being much lower than any of the screen top enclosures. With the anacondas I have been using newspaper but the larger cages I like to use atroturf or autobond carpet like you mentioned. I usually throw out the sheets when they release that fowl mess on them. For all small cages I think I am going to use the thick bounty rolls for the cleaning purpose you mentioned. And this is what I currently am using. I stopped using atroturf on the small cages because it just got too pricy since I do throw it out instead of cleaning it. I like my stuff very sterile so fesh substrate is a must. I think I can afford the more expensive paper towels though : ) Thanks again. Also...I notice from time to time my yellow anacondas start looking like they have discolored scales and I wonder if it is due to wet ink on the newspaper. This is why I want to see how the paper towels work out. But I never saw any problems on a green and they are more aquatic than the yellows (at least mine) so I would think they would be similar...but they are also darker so it would not be as noticeable. Sorry for the long explaination. Thanks though.