Best substrate in your opinion and why?

[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.