Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What does everyone use? I use paper towels but am getting sick of my snakes messing them up and spilling water on them within an hour. I am thinking about switching to aspen bedding. Should I be worried? How has everyone else liked aspen? Any other bedding ideas? Thanks a lot. Matt

For most of my years with balls - I've used tanks for my snakes (having only 1-5 at a time it wasn't a big deal). In my tanks I used Reptibark and prefer that to everything else I've tried. Since it's impractical to use in tubs Ive had to play around with a lot of different stuff. I like cypress mulch - but found that depending on the type it can have bugs in it or the snakes would be dirty when I took them out of the tubs. Shredded aspen was a nightmare - everytime I was in the snake room I was sneezing and as soon as it got wet it stunk like wet dog (and no I don't have allergies it's just really dusty). I finally settled on Chipped Aspen and really like it doesn't have any of the problems of the shredded kind - less likely to cause problems if accidently ingested, etc. For the hell of it I decided to try newspaper last month - I can't even begin to tell you how much I hated it - cheap and easy my @ss and I had 3 of my snakes go off feed after switching (if you want the full laundry list of complains about it I'd be happy to expound). So we are back to using chipped aspen and everyone is happy again.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

I use non-bleached paper towls in the hatchling boxes and have tried EVERYTHING in the large racks....my favorite...cypress mulch. It holds humidity very well without getting moldy, has a fairly pleasant sent and I have noticed that any "problem" feeders start to eat much better on it. Only problem is some people have an alergy to it, I have not noticed any problems with the snakes but it makes some people itch a little...as far as the dust goes..none what so ever if it is kept slightly damp...a spray or two every other day and when the snake goes into shed, a little wetter and they ALWAYS shed in one piece...