Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello!

I'm posting this question for my mother. She's had two sudan plateds for about 3-4 years now. Usually, she uses a combination of bed-a-beast and repti-bark for bedding, as they like to dig alot and it retains some moisture. However she's been having problems with the bedding getting bugs, so she wants to change their bedding to something else.

Any suggestions? What are some opinions on carefresh or aspen? Can they/do they cause blockages if ingested?

Thanks for any information!

I personally have never liked carefresh because it tends to get very messy when it gets wet. I also just object to the artificial look of it. Also, I object to aspen because it typically has too small of a particle size in my opinion. I know of lots of snake keepers who like it but I've seen far too much of it getting easily ingested for my liking. If your mother hasn't tried simply using all new Bed-a-Beast and new bark chips I would try an alternate substrate like hardwood mulch or cypress mulch. Or, you could make a soil mixture which is in my opinion by far the best substrate. You can make the soil mixture by combining equal parts bark mulch [hardwood or cypress - no cedar!], topsoil [avoid mixtures with any type of fertilizer or manure], and peat moss or Bed-a-Beast.
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Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

Thank you very much!