What substrate is efficient in cleaning and time?

[Amirra]

I'm looking for something that lasts long is durble and does not absorb fecal and urine smells and bacteria.

I am sick of newspaper and papertowel messes... need something I can swap out and clean pretty quick.

I went to the Florida Reptile Expo this weekend and saw a cork board substrate. I liked it but wasnt sure if it would absorb bacteria and such. I dislike that plastic fake grassy prickly stuff.

I have a Bubblegum Rat Snake and a Ball Python.

I Also have a High Yellow Leo.

Will cork work for my species of reptiles? If not I am in dire need of something else workable.

thanks

-Alexa

[Jeff_Favelle]

Cypress mulch.

[ohh_kristina]

I use cypress bark for my snakes that require high humidity. I just spot clean the area under and around the urates/defecation. I use aspen bedding for the rest of my animals and use the same spot cleaning method for that. It works pretty well and looks nice. I remove and replace all bedding about once a month or once every other month. I haven't had any problems.
If you do the spot cleaning method with the cork bark, you shouldn't have any problems with it.

[burmer]

I'm the same as Kristina. I use cypress for all my herps that are high humidity animals. You can't beat the price. It does look good and spot cleans easy.

[Invictus]

I use sphagnum moss for the humidity lovers, and have had awesome success with it. For the big snakes, astroturf. For the rest, shredded aspen or paper towel depending on how often they need to be cleaned. I guess you can say I've tried it all and continue to use several varieties of substrate for various reasons.

As for the cork, negative on that. Cork would absorb smell like you wouldn't believe, and it's impossible to clean.

[sapphire_moon]

since you only have 3 animals and not a big collection.........

I use carefresh for my corn, works great, no smell, absorbs urates and fecal matter, actually kinda clumps together, Check the cage every (or every other) day, and just scoop the little clump out. Once we get my bp's cage all set I am thinking about putting him on carefresh also.

Can't seem to find cypress mulch or aspen bedding around my area.

I do not have a leo so I'm not sure what would work for them....sorry.....

[mark129er]

Just a question: do you buy the cypress bark from the pet store or from the gardening department of hardware stores??

[Amirra]

Thank you all for your replies...And I'm really glad I didn't buy the cork bark...

As for the cypress mulch, it sounds real great and all, but do I go buy it at a reptile store or just go to my nearest wal-mart?

And when feeding time comes around, do any of you have a separate tank for just feeding the snake? When I went to a local reptile store, this guy had just sold his candy corn, and it was in one of those cheap, plastic cricket containers with the vented lid and pop top. It was a large cage too, and he said that the cage was just for feeding the snake and then he put it in another cage forit to live. Said it kept the snake more tame that way... and when it comes to cypress mulch, isnt there a problem with accidental ingestion?

sorry for all the questions, I have had my snakes for about 3.5 years and have made many bad desicions when it came to the right environments, nothing life threatening to the animals, but it cost me oodles of extra money I know I could have saved otherwise.

And what is comfortable living space for a ball python? Most care sheets I have read said about a 20 gallon, but I have one now and Draco, my bp, is only a juvi and he's already squished...

[Amirra]

so where do I get the cypress mulch and carefresh?

[mark129er]

Exo terra markets cypress mulch which is available at most pet stores (at a huge mark-up) or you could buy it from a hardware/gardening store. I like to heat mine in the oven before using it to kill any parasites that may have piggy-backed into the package.

[Linds]

Most garden centres (including Wal Mart, depending on where you are) carry cypress mulch. It is definitely something you can avoid pay the $$ from a pet store for.

If you choose to go with Carefresh, you do have to get it from select pet stores.

For your leo I wouldn't recommend going with cypress mulch, it isn't good for arid environments like that, in addition to which it can still cause impaction, and we know how much substrate tends to end up in a leos mouth They are paper trained so I would recommend sticking with papertowel... you cannot get easier than that... just remove/replace the "bathroom square" as needed. Seriously only a 10 second job.

[Amirra]

okay thanks.

I was planning to keep my leo on paper towel until she reached full growth, and I'm gonna try either aspen bedding or cypress mulch for my ball python and corn snake.

What about aspen bedding? Do ball pythons like it? I saw that the people at busch gardens have their rat snakes on it, and wasn't sure about bps.

[Invictus]

Our BPs are doing quite well on aspen.

[Classic]

All my animals do really well on aspen also. It is really good for spot cleaning and appears to be more availible than the cypres. Where I am anyways. Aspen, when purchased in a bulk bag can last up to 10-12 months for 20 snakes.

[nolagurl]

I use ReptiBark. It's kind of expensive but it looks good, smells good, and spot cleans like a dream. It's wonderful for retaining humidity as well. You can purchase it in pet stores like http://www.petco.com