Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Question for those of you who use Aspen-how often do you completly replace it? For all of my Kings/Milks I usually spot-clean as needed & completly exchange it monthly. Due to the frequent cleaning I now find myself doing Im debating whether to use Aspen, though I find my other snakes thouroughly enjoy the security it provides them. Currently using plain white paper towels which are great for a sterile enviroment-any advice? Thanks...........

i guess it depends on how well you spot clean. if you are aggressive with your spot cleans, then a complete change is required less often. during spot cleaning, i remove all the shavings that get wet, all the way to the floor of the cage. then i spray the floor (and wall and ceiling when necessary) with chlorhexidine sol'n to help wipe up the urates and liquids, wipe dry and replace shavings. this keeps the smell way down and i change the entire cage only once every six months. but i would guess that i probably turnover about half of the shavings with just the spot cleaning.

matt

I used to use newspaper exclusively for my indigos until my wife's nose had it with the constant daily reminder of "cleaning those blankity blank cages" from my wife (who is a great gal and VERY understanding of my strange herp selection of working with indigos who, in her eyes, just live to crap). I switched to aspen a few years back and it has worked out very well....not perfect, but good. I do complete cage cleanings once every 4-6 weeks....I couldn't imagine going any further even with detailed spot cleanings. I do spot clean by taking a very large area of the substrate out, disinfecting all the way to the floor and replacing with fresh bedding (as the other post mentioned....and, as he said, by doing so, you can probably cut down on complete changes even more but I prefer to do it more often). I haven't encountered any problems with accidental ingestion of the bedding. I also provide a humidity box of slightly dampened spaghnum moss as aspen tends to wick up moisture making it unsuitable for high humidity loving species like indigos....but by providing a microclimate via a humidity box, you can get around this issue.

Hope this helps. Rob Carmichael

>>Question for those of you who use Aspen-how often do you completly replace it? For all of my Kings/Milks I usually spot-clean as needed & completly exchange it monthly. Due to the frequent cleaning I now find myself doing Im debating whether to use Aspen, though I find my other snakes thouroughly enjoy the security it provides them. Currently using plain white paper towels which are great for a sterile enviroment-any advice? Thanks...........
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

Thanks for the input guys-as somebody new to keeping Drymarchon its wonderful to have access to the info you guys provide.