Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

I just upgraded my BCI to a 24" wide cage and now a single newspaper section no longer covers the width of the bottom. If I use 2 overlapping sections the snake seems to find his way under the paper with new frequency, resulting in paper balled up and pushed all over the cage and him sitting on the bare acryllic floor.

Snake is 7-8 foot male BCI, very healthy and active.

Any ideas on a better method of papering the cage? Thanks for any suggestions.

Tom

a 7-8 foot male BCI, very healthy and active, will destroy the paper any way you lay it! lol ESPECIALLY in such a Small Cage !

Did you say he was just upgraded to something 24" wide? that is only 2'... he should be in something 4-6' wide minimum. How long and high is it?

I have taped the paper overlaps before, which works for animals not as active and not as large, but they still manage to get under the ends..

The best bet would be cage liners.. I use DCL. Once sheet, thick, absorbant, doesn't move..

You could also use Aspen.. which would probably be patted down a bit from the weight and not move around much.

take care, Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

its 6' long, 2 foot high. Bigger is always better but this takes up a full wall in my herp room!

I hadn't heard of DCL, looks very interesting and price is right! Thanks much.

Ok, 6' is enough..lol

Yes, DCL is pretty good.. makes cleanups and changing a breeze... especially when you have 100 or more..

Thanks, Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

I use aspen...love it.
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Chris
Contact
Captive Bred Herps

0.0.2 Gila Monsters
1.2 KSB "Normal"
1.2 KSB "Albino Het/snow"
1.1 KSB "Anery"
2.2 Rubber boas
3.3 Solomon Island G. Boa
1.2 BCC Born 5-30
1.0 Leopard Gecko
1.0 Pacman Frog

Over the years I've always heard (and said) that any type of wood chip/shavings substrate was bad for snakes but lately I've seen a whole lot of folks using and recommending aspen. I don't feed my snakes in their homes so impaction risk is minimal.

I see that its sold specially labeled as "snake bedding". i haven't seen that locally but I wouldn't be surprized if I could find aspen bedding of some sort. There wouldn't be any difference in aspen bedding marketed for rats, ferrets or whatever and that marketed for snakes, would there? In other words, is one type of aspen bedding acceptable while another isn't?

Thanks,

Tom

There are TONS of wood shavings and mulches out there, along with tons of mixes and other substrates, but true Aspen is only one... it either comes either like little needles, or in bigger chunks.
What is mostly used for rodents is Pine Shavings... Pine and Cedar are bad for your boa.

Aspen or Cypress Mulch is probably the best.

Aspen looks cleaner and may stay smelling nicer..
Cypress is darker, better for more humidity..

later -Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

OK, got some aspen. Good looking shredded type stuff. Says "recommended for reptiles" so must be good, right Anyway, its looks like the stuff people are using.

I'll give this try because I really needed something quickly as he's made a terrible mess of the newspaper. If I'm not pleased with this I'll be ordering the DCL.

Thanks again for all the advice guys!

Tom

I use cypress mulch for mine and have never had any problems. You can get it readily at Home depot. A large 2 cu ft. bag cost $1.66 and 1 bag more than covered my 75 gallon tank, the substrate is actually about 4 inches deep from using the one bag. I can use 1 bag on numerous of my 20 gallon long tanks. Which is great and all you have to do is spot clean when needed Aspen or cypress either way is good.
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0.1.0 Brown Pacman
1.2.0 Albino Clawed frogs
1.0.0 Brown Clawed Frog
0.0.1 Superlight Baby Sulcatta
1.0.0 Juv. leopard tort
0.0.2 Fly river turtles
0.0.2 Savannah Monitors
0.0.1 yellow flame Niger uromastyx
1.1.0 Mali Uromastyx
0.1.1 Ball pythons
2.2.0 pastel Columbian boas
1.1.0 Hypo Hog boas
1.0.0 Hypo pastel boa
1.1.0 Hypo boa babies, Poss. DH sunglow
1.0.0 Coral albino boa (my baby)
and
1.1.0 Pomeranians (the wifes babies)

the Aspen that is free of anything such as scents or oils. I use shredded Aspen and it works great. I lay down ad sections of a newspaper and feed on top of that so no ingestion of the wood is taking place. It's a little more expensive than newspaper but I think it's worth it.

Its a big cage, he seems little when he's curled up in there!

How many layers of the DCL do you use?

Thanks,
Tom

Just one layer and that's it! if he urinates, most times it will soak up quicly, dry up and not even smell much....
sometimes younger adults going potty doesn't even require a changing of the complete sheet.

I know from experience that even many layers of newspaper combined with a big 'load' equal a big, smelly, soupy mix that drips as I take it out of the cage and to the trash... Usually i have to take all out and wash out the inside of the cage... not anymore!

Cut my time from cleaning stacks and stacks of cages from a few days to a few hours!

-Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

When they get big if they like it messy it's going to be messy regardless of the substrate. Some wadded paper may be just what he wants.
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Ed Lilley, www.constrictorsnw.com

...DCL actually stand for?

Linda
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When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

Well... DCL?

Linda

np
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

...thanks, Dave!

I think I better take a look at the good ole KISS.

Linda

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When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

When I opened your post, the DCL ad was on top :-D
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

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www.chrisolsonreptiles.com
Naked I see the camp of those who desire nothing

Watch out for the shipping price on the DCL. I checked on some and the price was good but shipping was almost twice the cost of the proiduct.

I was afraid that might be the case....

regardless of what the shipping might be compared to the product itself, it it still totally worth it.

I purchased two rolls more than 6 months ago. I use these primarily in more than 20 four foot cages and am just starting the second roll.

thanks, Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

Yea, the product price is certainly sweet. I have only this one boa and a 4 foot kingsnake that would be using it so a roll would last me years I think.

holder/cutter they sell unless you do have lots of cages/snakes to clean, then it is worth it.. IMO

thanks, joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

and I agree with Joe, a 2' cage is seems to small for this size boa, but you didn't give the rest of the dimensions. I would use at least a 3x2' cage for a boa over 5' but ideally at a 4x2' would be better.

ANYWAYS...
you are only using one sheet or two sheets of newspaper? Use lots more than that! It can't soak up any urates if it's only one sheet, at least, it seems it would be a lot more messy. I use about 6-8 layers of paper. I put them in longwise, widthwise and diagnol, all diff ways that way even if and when the snakes burrow in the paper there is always another 3-4 layers under that. Newspaper is so cheap anyways.
So, use more!

oh, and I also like to use bedsheets, the snakes can wrap up and hide in the sheets instead of destroying all the newspaper.
good luck,
April

No, that's sections, not sheets! I use a full Sunday Miami Herald.

I gave the other dimensions in a follow-up post to Joe, its a big cage, 6 feet long, 2 foot wide by 2 foot high. I promise I'm not jamming this big snake in a 10 gallon with one sheet of newspaper

I just saw your reply to Joe that the cage is big enough!
Sorry, you can ignore that part of my post!

-april

I agree with April....LOTS of newspaper is a good thing.
It is cheap...and frankly there so much misinformation in them that the only thing they ARE good for IS cage liner..IMO..lol

That and paper to put down when fingerpaining with children.

Sincerely,

Fred Albury

This is a great and active forum! Why don't you guys check out my question in the cages forum too? Sure could use a bit of advice there

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=810539,810539

...Newsprint for my 24 by 36 inchers. It come exactly that size so I don't have to cut or overlap it for my enclosures. I was under the imperssion that newspaper was the same size though. It is working well for smaller boas like BRB's. You can buy it from your local newspaper fairly reasonably. Just a thought.

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When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

I use the indented bogus craft paper from either www.uline.com or www.packagingprice.com

The same as the "other liner" but much cheaper per roll and low cost shipping. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

.
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

I put the snakes on aspen for a trial. If it doesn't work out I'll go to the DCL. Nobody has dumped yet so I don't yet know how easy the clean-up will be....

So far the only thing I don't care for is that when the boa moves around at night he leaves big "snake tracks" all the way down to the glass. Looks kinda funky with big lines of bare acryllic all over but is obviously easily fixed by just respreading the stuff around. Will this stuff "mat down" so that doesn't happen as much? I have about 2" of it in the cage.

Thanks again for the advice in this thread!

Tom