Substrate-Cage Carpet

[Chris04]

I just bought this cage carpet for my '03 ball, and I was wondring if this was the best for him. It is made by Zoomed and looked great when I bought it.

Here's a link: http://www.zoomed.com/html/repti_cage_carpet.html

Any imput?

By the way, I'm very much a noob.

[Invictus]

Welcome to the site Chris.

I've recommended the Zoomed cage carpet to a few people. I am using astroturf from Home Depot (pretty much the same as the Zoomed stuff but a lot cheaper) for one of my boas, and so far I think it's great. I'm not sure if I'll be using it for all of our snakes though, since it does add time to cleaning duties. But, for a single ball python, it's just fine.

[sapphire_moon]

I've heard that any cage carpet will eventually hold the urine smell. Even if you wash it. I had zoomed cage carpet, it ended up fraying, within one month, and within two it started to stink because of the urate smell had soaked into it.

[Slannesh]

If you can still smell Urates even after washing it.... You aren't washing it enough.

I used astroturf for years, but it's a huge pain in the rear to actually get clean... I eventually resorted to scrubbing it in a sink with a relatively strong (probably half a cup in a full sink of the hottest water I could stand to put my hands in) bleach solution and let it soak for about 10 mins... then several mins of scrubbing and a good half hour soak... Then rinse it till you can't smell bleach anymore using hot water. Wring out and hang to dry.

Never once had a problem being able to smell Urates or frayed edges.

[sapphire_moon]

Maybe.........but as you said, a real pain in the but to get clean!

[mykee]

I tried it for about a week, the warmth from the heat seemed to react with the chemicals that are used in it and it stunk like hell. I now use unprinted newspaper stock; won't hold bacteria from repeated washings, CHEAP, practical, ease of removal and replacing is top-notch.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Carpets suck for Ball Pythons. Use aspen or cypress mulch or care-fresh or shredded newspaper.

[Slannesh]

I'm not a fan of carpets anymore, yeah it's cheap but you end up paying in labor ;)

I'm considering giving Orchid bark a try, it looks like pretty much the same thing as I used to keep my ball on (Repti-bark) and is fairly cheap to purchase from Home Depot. I understand I can get it even cheaper from a plant nursery.

Any known issues with Orchid bark?

I've been using newspaper for a little while now, easy to keep clean but I hate how it looks ;)

[emroul]

Paper towels work great for me :)

Jennifer