Aspen in rubbermaids?

Bartman · 12-20-04, 12:29 AM

I find my bp's are always destroying my neatly placed down paper towl and they are basically living on plastic. I want to know if its okay to put a thin layer of aspen instead of paper towl?

CHRISANDBOIDS14 · 12-20-04, 12:45 AM

Adam:

Yeah, I get that problem too with bloods and balls. Im going to be converting to aspen this week for balls, and I know of a few people and have heard of alot of people using it. I would say, Go for it. HTH.

C.

Slannesh · 12-20-04, 02:10 AM

I've had my ball on aspen for quite a while, no issues that i've seen yet.

I have heard that it can get moldy if it's too humid though.

snakehunter · 12-20-04, 08:01 AM

I use it aswell with no probs.

Bartman · 12-20-04, 11:39 AM

Thanks everyone. I just switched them all over and ill keep you updated to any problems, but it sounds like it should be okay.

mykee · 12-20-04, 11:49 AM

If they move paper towels out of the way, what makes you think that they won't do the same thing with the aspen? When I had my balls on a shredded substrate years ago, 100% of the time they buried down into it, which caused heat issues. Maybe you should just sit them down and give them a stern talking-to regarding keeping their homes neat and tidy. LOL.

Bartman · 12-20-04, 02:33 PM

Thats true, but it wouldnt be as bad. Almost every single day id find it in a ball in the corner.

What do you suggest I do instead?

smeagel · 12-20-04, 03:30 PM

I use news paper and besides finding them hiding under the news paper it stays where i put it most of the time. and its a heck of alot cheeper the any other beding.

mykee · 12-20-04, 04:07 PM

I use unprinted newspaper stock and if they want to move the substrate, they're going to move it, not a damn thing you can do about it. The ball lying on the plastic isn't a bad thing either, unless the contact temp of the plastic is really hot, which I would doubt.

Jeff_Favelle · 12-20-04, 07:45 PM

I see a mold city forming............

Keep us updated on any bad sheds. That's all I ever had when I used aspen.

Bartman · 12-20-04, 08:14 PM

Bad sheds eh. Okay, back to paper towl it is! Ill take your word for it that it isnt the best.

bailey · 12-21-04, 01:59 PM

I love my carpet. You can get a roll of good quality turf carpet at Lowe's or Home Depot or Marvins for about 10 bux and you get get 4 or 5 peices off of it. It's dryer so you have to compensate for humidity which I use a mulch bowl for. They can't get under it and it's relatively easy to heat through. Just what I use.

BornboreD · 12-21-04, 02:17 PM

I use aspen for all my animals. Seems to work well. I have only noticed mold once, and that was in an area where I had just "spot cleaned" feces and a urate ball, a week or two later one my animals had spilled their water dish, and I had to replace all of the shavings (which I normally do every month), and notcied mold growing in the grooves on the bottom of the tub, right where the feces had been that I had spot cleaned previously. Other than that, no mold. However, I do have a few issues with aspen: First, the snakes do tend to get all pushed over to one side. Secondly, if my food items are wet in anyway, from either the defrosting process, or from the animal simply pulling it into it's water while feeding, they get completely coated in the Aspen. Pain in the rear trying to pick shavings off of a dead rat while it's going down a snakes throat. Also the shaving tend to get all over everything, perhaps due to my sloppiness/clumsiness.

honduranfreekk · 12-21-04, 02:53 PM

Aspen WAS the only substrate I would ever use at one time but Like some ppl have stated and the reason I don't use it anymore is I was tired of the MOLD.
Now I also only use newsprint.It is easy to cleen and its FREE

Kelvin@Brigitte

Vengeance · 12-21-04, 02:57 PM

I like newspaper as well, I never used aspen but was on carefresh, just wasn't comfortable feeding in the cage with a particle substrate, so newspaper it is.