Where are you all getting your substrate these days?

**EL Ziggy** · 12-07-17, 10:46 AM

I was getting shredded aspen and sani chips from pet360.com. but they no longer carry the aspen products I had been buying. Where do you all get your bedding from? Any links are appreciated

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DJC Reptiles · 12-07-17, 10:57 AM

I don't use aspen much anymore but I used to get it from amazon, you'd be surprised what they have there. You could go with the classic zoo med aspen snake bedding,

https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Aspen...+snake+bedding

It's pretty cheap there if that's what your going for. But I recomend this product,

https://www.amazon.com/Kaytee-Aspen-...+bedding&psc=1

It is not marketed as a reptile product, therefore there is a lot more of it and it is much cheaper.

Humble308 · 12-07-17, 12:17 PM

Zigs I get mine from Tractor Supply (I'm sure they have those in Georgia

) Plain Aspen bedding comes a 4 cu/ft bag (I'd say around 15 lbs) for $11.99. It's a little coarser than the stuff I've seen in your cages, but it works pretty well for me. All the best.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...t?cm_vc=-10005

**EL Ziggy** · 12-07-17, 12:56 PM

Thanks y'all!

DJC Reptiles · 12-07-17, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EL Ziggy

Thanks y'all!

No problem, glad we can help

Albert Clark · 12-08-17, 07:16 AM

Hey EL, try this site for your aspen bedding. Pet Mountain. I just found them and their prices are pretty competitive and the savings are surprising. They sell in bulk too. I just ordered some bulk sanitary chips for my crew. I figured I try sanitary chips bc of the lower dust and drying nature of aspen. These guys sell mostly everything pet related. Happy shopping...Lol. I ordered some bulk mouse food also for my breeder mice.

Herpin' Man · 12-08-17, 08:37 AM

I get mine from the recycling bin at the post office.
I use newspaper.

**EL Ziggy** · 12-08-17, 08:48 AM

@ AL- Thanks for the tip. I didn't know you were breeding your own mice. Is that a very laborious task?

akane · 12-08-17, 11:04 AM

The backyard

Probably most of it is actually the hardware and feedstore because plain Iowa soil will take longer to dry than coco fiber if you accidentally keep putting water in it. My $8 garden store coco fiber block has done a 48x21" footprint, added a little to the corn snake mix for multiple enclosures, and all the insect bins with half left and that's their small size.

When trying it for small animals I never found aspen that didn't splinter or cost a fortune. Even recently I've still heard of people getting animals with tiny splinters all jammed in them that they have to pluck out with tweezers. I'd rather risk the not completely proven problems of kiln dried pine than aspen. I use pine pellets for the rodents or any emergency purposes if I don't want to just lay down newspaper temporarily.

I found mice a huge pain and despite getting them from a very successful breeder the adults all cannibalized each other. Now the rats from even the same person filled my freezer with 4 grocery bags of packages of different sizes and a plastic container of the bags of pinkies in the first year of setting up 2 trios. I only went through a few cage cleanings of pine pellets and shredded newspaper before I had so many frozen rats I ended the whole project. I'm trying to start up some ASF in their place because the most finicky bull snake refuses only rats. He'll eat gerbil, guinea pig, mouse, poultry, and rabbit but not the freezer full of rats.

Albert Clark · 12-08-17, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EL Ziggy

@ AL- Thanks for the tip. I didn't know you were breeding your own mice. Is that a very laborious task?

Yep, I started breeding my own mice to have a supply for the ball python hatchlings and also for my stubborn pied male adult. The pied will only take live mice and I have been finished trying to get him to convert to f/t. All my other ball pythons sub adult and adult all take f/t rats except him. Trust me, I've tried with him. No go. Even the new clutch of albino ball pythons are taking f/t rats. It's not laborious EL, it's just a lot of staying on top of the cleanliness of the tanks. I am doing it on a very small scale so I only have two females and one male at all times.

DJC Reptiles · 12-08-17, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albert Clark

Yep, I started breeding my own mice to have a supply for the ball python hatchlings and also for my stubborn pied male adult. The pied will only take live mice and I have been finished trying to get him to convert to f/t. All my other ball pythons sub adult and adult all take f/t rats except him. Trust me, I've tried with him. No go. Even the new clutch of albino ball pythons are taking f/t rats. It's not laborious EL, it's just a lot of staying on top of the cleanliness of the tanks. I am doing it on a very small scale so I only have two females and one male at all times.

Even small sale that's pretty cool, I don't think I could ever breed mice myself, a lot of maintenance.

Pogie · 12-10-17, 08:02 AM

I also have been getting it from Tractor Supply. The bag is huge though lol.

**Minkness** · 12-10-17, 11:58 AM

I get my cypress from Amazon and my sanichips from genders at repticon.