substrate question

[remsin76]

i have a lot of excess alpine shavings in my house that i bought to for hampsters can this be used in the terrarium? i heard it can get lodged int he snakes mouth when they eat.

Also has anyone heard of calci-sand from tRex i think. its summposed be sand but its really made of calcium supposed to be healthy if ingested and can be scooped like a litterbox. i used to use this stuff wiht my old BP I am jstu wondering what everyone thought about this product. Thanks

[tHeGiNo]

First of all I do not know about using any type of sand with ball pythons whatsoever, probably not the best idea. First off, it is NOT digestable. I repeat, it is NOT digestable. If swallowed, it most definitely could cause an impaction. It is expensive and a waste of money. If a wet mouse is placed in the enclosure, for example, the sand will stick to the mouse and be ingested by the snake. All in all it is just not a good idea. Try using coconut fibres such as T-Rexs' exo earth if your worried about impactions (which is definitely something to worry about). However, to reduce the possibility, you should feed your snake out of his enclosure anyhow. This also prevents your snake from thinking that every time your hand goes in there it is feeding time. As far as alpine shavings, anything of the sort can get 'lodged' in the snakes throat. I do not know exactly how good alpine shavings are for snakes...

[Jeff_Favelle]

What's an alpine shaving? I've heard of aspen shavings and pine shavings, but I've never heard of alpine shavings. Weird. Alpine is a region/ecosystem, not a tree.

Unless its a name brand?

[tHeGiNo]

Ditto, i think he meant aspen?

[remsin76]

yea i meant aspen i dont know what i was thinking. thanks.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Cool. Aspen is great. It comes in small beta chips and in shavings. Both work fine. No worries about it getting lodged in the mouth (as far as I know). Lots of people put lots of expensive Ball Pythons on aspen without consequences. I've been using it for only a couple of seasons (newspaper before that) and it works just fine.

Best of luck. :D

[Jeff_Favelle]

Oops, I also meant to say that you should make sure it IS aspen and NOT pine. Pine is bad. Aspen is good.

[remsin76]

what about that stuff taht tey sell int eh pet stores where it comes in a brick and then i ahve to put it in water and it expands to liek 5 times the size??? i think its made of coconut? is that stuff ok for my ball? thanks i appreciate ur help