Best substrate in your opinion and why?

[ChristinaM]

What do ya'll use for your BCI?

Right now, due to mite final treatments, my BCI is on paper towels. Which I do not like.

I'm thinking aspen shavings perhaps?

I'd like to hear what everyone else uses, is there stuff I should stay away from and why? etc.

Thanks

[Invictus]

For large boas, Newspaper or paper towel all the way. main reason - you can't feed them on aspen, and believe me, when they get to adulthood, feeding them within their enclosure is an absolute must. You can't feed them in a temporary container and then transfer them... beyond the risk to yourself of a boa in a feeding frenzy, there is the regurge possibility. Aspen shavings can be ingested.

Another alternative is indoor/outdoor carpet, if you're dealing with only a single boa or maybe a couple of them. Any Home Depot will have good stuff that isn't "astroturf" so to speak, but actual machine washable carpet that makes excellent subtrate. It's appealing, easy to clean, and quite sanitary. Just keep 2 pieces so that when you're washing one, you can put the other one in the enclosure.

Bottom line though, loose substrate for large boas can cause quite a headache, even for a single specimen. You'll want to find something you can feed on, can remove with one swipe, and replace easily.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Newspaper.

[Matt_K]

I'll agree with newspaper.. I have about 15 people giving me newspapers every month.. around 28 papers per person per month.. I love it!!! Much cheaper then paper towel :D I've also been using Beta Chip for the corns, they like it and i like the look of it.. So, it works for them..

[Stockwell]

I hate newspaper but I must agree, its the safest.. either that or large size landscape bark nuggets usually sold as Western Bark. It looks better, but brings flies

[ChristinaM]

well poo.
I guess newspaper it is. :)

i never thought bout when he gets older. Yes, I definately don't want to be transferring him to a feeding container. That could be a severe pain in the whatever part of me he decides to eat.

[BoidKeeper]

I use newspaper. Cheap, safe to feed on. Can't spot clean but it's easy to pull the whole thing out and replace it.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Vengeance]

I don't have any Boa's so correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't care fresh be an ok loose substrate to use? It's safe to ingest in small quantities and much easier to spot clean with then newspaper or paper towel. Also it's relatively cheap, not as cheap as newspaper, but still pretty cheap. But just throwing that out there as an option.

[lostwithin]

Hey, I Use Astroturf, with a layer of paper towel underneath. This is because the stuff I uses cant be machine-washed, so the paper towel absorbs the urine ect. During cleaning I hose down the Astroturf and replace the paper towel.

If you like a different idea try Peat moss. Its cheap, and if you soak it in water, then pack in into the bottom of your cage and turn the heat lamp on for a day or so it'll completely dry out hard as a rock, this stuff is mold resistant, it can hold humidity, and absorbs everything, NO smell and easy too clean. I got this idea from a horse farmer. They used it with the horses (allot more of it) because it kills all the smell. Good luck,
Devon

[boa]

Newspaper for large boas.Paper towel for small boas.We have never had any problems with this substrate.Hope this helps

[ChristinaM]

ohh, peat moss.....

is that a possibility?
I thought I read somewhere that the dust from the dried stuff could be harmful?

[condabroad]

I use a mix of fir bark and cocnut fibres, it is fairly cheap and easy to clean, but I have some on newspaper as well and it cleans well

[Edwin]

I am using aspen bark chips right now. To avoid accidentally ingesting any loose substrate, I feed my bci on a paper plate.

[lostwithin]

Hi, actually I had a post up about the dust wondering if it would bother my snake ha ha. Any way, what I found was it was ok when it was kept damp, or kept dry, it was the drying process in between right after you pack it that it was really in the air. It didn’t seem too bother any of my animals; I had Boids, Geckos and a frog on it. at first it was loose and damp, for snakes it seemed fine, but my gecko and from ate allot of it feeding, although it didn’t hurt them at all I decided too pack it and dry it. Then took it right out of the smaller animals cages, and just left it with the bigger snakes. non ever seemed too have any problems, I on the other hand did, when it would be drying it would really bother my eyes. not the snakes, just me, and one day after cleaning it out completely I decided I didn’t want too pack more and switched too Astroturf. Because of my eyes and because my little albino burm really looked dirty all the time lol.
But it didn’t seem too bother any of my animals at all, hope that helps,
Devon

[vanderkm]

When we had boas we used terry towel when they were under about 3 feet and then switched to flannel sheets in their adult cages. I really hate the look of newspaper and find that it isn't absorbant unless you use lots of layers and everthing just pools on top. The cloth absorbs fluid waste, it was easy to dump the poops into the garbage and launder just like baby diapers (really big ones!), with a double rinse cycle.

I liked that I could be confident that the bedding was really clean (never could with carpet) and I don't think spot cleaning is effective with large boids - there is just too much waste that soaks into damp substrate like coconut husk or peat moss.

There is some danger that the towel may stick to a prey item and be swollowed along with it, so we always observed the snakes during feeding and ofen would feed just on the lino floor of the enclosure.

Just another option to consider - if you want something that can look nicer than newspaper, give good absorbancy and be easy to manage,

mary v.

[Invictus]

I never thought of that Mary, but I think I'm going to try it. You can probably get good flannel at a fabric store for pretty cheap. eh?

[ChristinaM]

ohhhhhh, excellent suggestion Mary. Thanks. I really dislike newspaper .

[Simon Sansom]

Newspaper for large snakes is the easiest and cleanest method, in my opinion. Just change it as soon as you see a mess.
I really don't like loose substrates because poops can get hidden underneath.
On a side note - I've never worried about loose substrates being ingested - snakes mostly live on the dirty ground in the wild, for cryin' out loud and they've been successful for millions of years. They haven't all died out from ingesting dirt and sticks and whatever else might attach itself to their food, lol!

Cheers!

Simon R. Sansom

[lostwithin]

mary v,
That sounds like a Great idea, I have never really thought of it before. I'd much prefer something that soaks up the mess and can be popped into the washer, I'll have too give it a try, Thanks,
Devon

Edit: mary,
How do you stop material from ending up bunched up in a corner?? I have melamine cages, wouldn’t the motion of the snake moving cause the material too slide? (It might not slide I just though of it right after I posted)

[Linds]

I use newspaper or bath towels for all my larger boids. Towels look nicer, but are more work. I only use them for the snakes that seem to do too much of a number on the newspaper. Like Matt, I also get recycling from my neighbours, so it is a freebie for me. I really like Mary's suggestion of the flannel though, I think in the future instead of buying more towels I will give that a shot.

Originally posted by Vengeance
I don't have any Boa's so correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't care fresh be an ok loose substrate to use? It's safe to ingest in small quantities and much easier to spot clean with then newspaper or paper towel. Also it's relatively cheap, not as cheap as newspaper, but still pretty cheap. But just throwing that out there as an option.

I've never tried it with any of my big boas, mainly due to the price. At $30CDN/bag, it would probably take one bag to fill one of my adult boas cages. It would cost me hundreds just to fill everyone's cages once. I use it for some of my little boas and colubrids though with much success.

[Vengeance]

Originally posted by Linds

I've never tried it with any of my big boas, mainly due to the price. At $30CDN/bag, it would probably take one bag to fill one of my adult boas cages. It would cost me hundreds just to fill everyone's cages once. I use it for some of my little boas and colubrids though with much success.

$30 a bag! DAM that's expensive, I only pay $10 a bag @ SuperPet at Kennedy and 401 and that takes care of my 50 gallon tank, bu I guess for larger Boid's who need a MUCH larger enclousre I can see how that would get really expensive.

[vanderkm]

Lostwithin - we never had problems with the flannel sliding around, but we did place the water dishes and hides strategically at the opposite corners of the enclosure so they weighted it down.

We just used older bed sheets and they are just a bit longer than our 6 foot cages, so folded in thirds and then with one end folded over they worked great.

We use CareFresh for all our colubrids now and like it for them, but besides the expense of filling a large cage for an adult boa, it is quite light and fluffy and tends to get piled up as snakes move around. Even with the smaller snakes, we find a lot of it goes over the edge of the waterdish and with large boids, I expect a lot would end up in the water on a daily basis. It is great for absorbancy, but the amount of urine a big boa passes would mean it would cost a lot over time,


mary v.