Substrate?

[Kaianuanu]

As you guys have probably seen, I just got my first carpet which is a little male coastal hatchling, and I have been asking lot of questions. Anyway, I'm now hooked on carpets, and I decided I now need a little female jungle, so now, I'm in the process of putting together a new setup. Earlier today picked up another 10 gallon from Walmart, and I already have a screen lid, I already know what lighting and heating i need to to get the right temps. Picking up another bowl and hide also shouldn't be a problem, and I can easily get some branches to make some perches from my yard, however, Im not sure what substrate to go with. I just used a Repti-carpet in my coastal's cage that I had laying around, and it gets the job done, but for this one, I want to try something more natural looking and not too messy. I like the look of reptibark but I'm afraid to using it because years ago, I had a baby black racer eat a chip and it poked through his side and eventually killled him.

[Cmwells90]

I've just started using Coco husk and it's working great! Holds humidity really well and I like the look it provides for the cage. Plus it's not all that expensive!

[Kaianuanu]

Don't know why I didn't think to ask before but, assuming they are both the same size, could I keep them together while they are young?

[Cmwells90]

I'd say no. Snakes are solitary animals. In the wild they will only come together for mating. It'll cause stress for both snakes and in some cases they may harm each other. With Corn snakes they can actually eat each other, not sure if that's the same in this case but I'd say let them live alone as you'll have better results.

[Donnie]

I use orchid bark for my carpets

[shaunyboy]

a great book for Carpet keepers is.....

Keeping and Breeding Australian Pythons,edited by Mike Swan

its pretty much the Carpet Keeping Bible mate,it contains all you need to know

the only substrate i know of that causes problems with Carpets is Aspen,due to its high dust content,it caused mild respiratory symptoms

cheers shaun

[Kaianuanu]

Originally Posted by shaunyboy

a great book for Carpet keepers is.....

Keeping and Breeding Australian Pythons,edited by Mike Swan

its pretty much the Carpet Keeping Bible mate,it contains all you need to know

the only substrate i know of that causes problems with Carpets is Aspen,due to its high dust content,it caused mild respiratory symptoms

cheers shaun

Holy smokes! for 50 bucks, it had better have everything. I'll have to see if i can find one in a store to take a look at before i buy it.

[MrCaveman]

Originally Posted by shaunyboy

the only substrate i know of that causes problems with Carpets is Aspen,due to its high dust content,it caused mild respiratory symptoms

Dude I agree, some aspen bags do have a lot of dust in them, the dust even bothers me and cloggs up my nose when I change my corn's aspen bedding. My adult JCP is in a temporary quarantine cage right now with paper towels and was contemplating using aspen or cage liners in his permanent cage. I used aspen once for my boa and it seemed to give him some respiratory porblems and since then has been on paper towels and doing perfectly; so Ive been a little aprehensive about aspen in my boa and python cages.

[franks]

I use rock pebbles topped with sphagnum moss.

[Lankyrob]

I use reptibark for all my snakes, never had any issues with it, holds humidity well for those that need it and lets snakes burrow through it for those that want to do it

[Kaianuanu]

Well I payed a visit to the LPS to pick up a few things for her enclosure and I was looking at substrates and I ended up just getting the reptibark cause it's just looks so darn good. I'll just be extra careful when feeding to make sure she doesnt ingest any.

[Kaianuanu]

Also, I had a friend who's baby coastal got mites, and it happened to be on reptibark also. Although it is unlikely that the reptibark was the source of the mites, i didn't see any harm in freezing it to be safe. I recommend anyone else do this as well. Also, it helps if you use one of those little beach toy sand sifters to to get out the little bit of dust/dirt that it may contain.

[Corey209]

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

I use reptibark for all my snakes, never had any issues with it, holds humidity well for those that need it and lets snakes burrow through it for those that want to do it

At the moment I have jungle mix and reptile bark so I'm conflicted on which to use for burrowing. Do you think a young hognose would be able to burrow in the reptibark? The jungle mix got into one of my bts' eyes before.

[Lankyrob]

Originally Posted by Kaianuanu

Also, I had a friend who's baby coastal got mites, and it happened to be on reptibark also. Although it is unlikely that the reptibark was the source of the mites, i didn't see any harm in freezing it to be safe. I recommend anyone else do this as well. Also, it helps if you use one of those little beach toy sand sifters to to get out the little bit of dust/dirt that it may contain.

I just throw it in the enclosure, the only mites in the bark are wood mites and are harmless to the snake.

I also just throw the rats onto the bark, never had any ingested; tho i feed DRY rats not wet ones which may cause the bark to stick more.

Originally Posted by Corey209

At the moment I have jungle mix and reptile bark so I'm conflicted on which to use for burrowing. Do you think a young hognose would be able to burrow in the reptibark? The jungle mix got into one of my bts' eyes before.

My corns burrow through the reptibark with no issues

[Kaianuanu]

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

I just throw it in the enclosure, the only mites in the bark are wood mites and are harmless to the snake.

You may be right about the types of mites the repti bark contains, however, the kid with the mite problem did indeed have the type of parasitic mites that were feeding on his snake, you could see them wedged under her scales. But again, the source of the infestation was undetermined.