Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had dums for several years now and have gone from pine to newspaper. Having recently picked up several ball pythons, I now buy aspen in large quantities. Was wondering if anyone had any experience using aspen with dums. Also, what do you use, if not aspen?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Derek

I am currently using aspen for my Dums. They seem to like to "burrow" in it. I have used newspaper almost exclusively in the past. With newspaper you have to provide a hide. The aspen does double duty. Its a substrate and a hidespot. I have a buddy that uses cypress with all of his snakes. It seems to act the same as aspen. The cypress seems to hold humidity better. But Dums don't require high humidity. So its all up to you. It all works.
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2.5 dumerils boas, 1.1 albino burmese python, 0.2 bearded dragons, 1.0 german giant bearded dragon & 0.0.1 sulcata tortoise

I use aspen for my dum because:
-it's easy to spot clean
-it's inexpensive
-it has very little dust
-ingestion danger is low
-more attractive and a lot less dirty than newspaper
-4 out of 5 dentists recommend it (okay, so maybe they don't know that much about dums)

You said you don't need a hide with aspen? Are your dums all juvies? You'd need a lot of aspen for an adult dum to hide in!

Thanks for the input. I was just a little hesitant because I had once heard that burrowers like boas and burms could get the aspen fibers impacted in their gumlines, which could lead to injury and infection. If no one has had this happen with dums, then I will try it on mine. Would love to be able to spot clean and have a nicer looking cage.

Thanks again,
Derek

I use aspen for my Dum and she loves it. I tried other subs as well and she liked aspen the most.

My 9ft female has about 5 inches of aspen in her cage (48x24x15 Neodesha custom). If she has eaten recently, you can only see her head poking out of the aspen. As a meal wears off, she slowly begins to be more noticeable. My 7ft female has a tendancy to "mound" her aspen up and then bury herself in it.

I put enough aspen in each cage so the snakes can completely bury themselves. I spot clean almost daily and do a completely change out once a month. I get the big bags (4.0 cu/ft) from Petsmart (the are about $15). I use about a bag per month.

I keep my albino burms the same way (9ft female & 7ft male). The female seems to burrow more than the male.
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2.5 dumerils boas, 1.1 albino burmese python, 0.2 bearded dragons, 1.0 german giant bearded dragon & 0.0.1 sulcata tortoise