bedding for your snakes

[johnlebel]

I got my savannah monitor on playsand and topsoil mix... does anyone use the combo for their snakes I likke the idea an have used just sand before but not both for snakes... I imagine its fine they are wild animals not like they pick the bedding they get in the wild...
Any input?

 

[brutus13]

I wouldn't use top soil for my snake. You don't want the humidity. I keep it simple with Aspen.

 

[johnlebel]

You need humidity for snakes tho!

 

[johnlebel]

You need humidity for snakes tho! When you lack humidity for snake it can cause rti... also the top soil an sand dries after a while

 

[Toby_H]

What kind of snake are we talking about?

There are water snakes with very high moisture demands and there are desert snakes that require arid environments... and everything in between...

My Rubber Boas like moist soil/substrate but my Sand Boa likes dry sand... both are snakes... each has very different needs...

 

[brutus13]

Thanks Toby for that clarification.

 

[johnlebel]

Salmon boas(columbians) and a dumerils boa. Which require around 80% humidity not that it has to be like that. I'm curious how the mixture will be because it is very affordable an easy to maintain.

 

[Toby_H]

Cypress mulch works great at retaining moisture and resisting mold/mildew. And it's inexpensive too (if you can find it locally)

If you feed in the enclosure I would steer away from large substrate when the animal is smaller.

Coco Fiber also works well for both retaining moisture as well as resisting mold/mildew, but is a bit more expensive. If, or when, the enclosure is smaller it's fine but with larger enclosures that require more substrate it may become financially unreasonable.

My Suggestions are the exact same for Tegus. Since your snakes and Tegus both have similar needs of the substrate, and pose the same concern when young (ingesting).

You could mix soil into Cypress, Coco, or almost any other substrate if you want to.

The downside to adding soil to a moist/humid enclosure is your reptile may get dirty and then carry dirt out of the enclosure when handling. This won't be as big of a deal with a snake that doesn't burrow as it will be with a burrowing lizard such as a Tegu, but it's something you may want to consider.

 

[brutus13]

You need humidity for snakes tho!

No I disagree. Your snakes like rosy boas red tails ball pythons do not need a moist substrate. They use Aspen. They do require a bowl of water to soak in during shedding. I've had my rosy boa for 14 years and she has not had one problem of any kind. I get full beautiful sheds healthy poops and eats like crazy. I get there are some snakes that live like tegus but not all.

 

[johnlebel]

All my snakes shed full an eat great with my humidity an. They soak less. Due to the fact that they are allready nice a moist. It cost me 4$ to put sand soil mix in 5 tanks 3 of which are 40gal breeder tanks... compared to buying a brick of aspens for 7$ a cage... am not against aspen I've owned well over 100 snakes I'm just askin to see if anyone uses the mix also... I've seen many snakes with the sand before. But all my snake seem to be ok with the mix so far... I'm just looking at it from a finnacial view it saved me a bunch of cash this way an cleaning urate an poop can be done like a liter box not having to replace the bedding after each drop.