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Good Lord, I hate aspen

C

cornsnakebob

New member
Meh, I don't get the aspen recommendations. I don't know how people with many snakes use this stuff. I only have two, and it's everywhere. Gets in my dresser (tank's on top of dresser), it gets in my clothes, on the floor. Ok end of rant. Sorry.
 
I've never had any issues at with the aspen bedding lol I have two snakes and it's never bothered me or them. I guess I like it mainly because they can burrow in it and they really seem to enjoy it.
I have the tanks on my computer desk and I've never seen any aspen on my desk lol maybe the rogue piece from when I take them out? But I like it lol
 
I use about 15 layers of papertowel so my snake can still have the security of being able to "burrow" while negating the mess and any (albeit small) chance of compaction.
 
Used to love aspen, but lately all the bags I'm getting have just been too dusty.

Gave it up for butcher paper. So far all good. Super dirt cheap and easy to clean up/replace.
 
I've gone back and forth between newspaper and aspen. Aspen is much easier for spot cleaning, and with messy colubrids (especially my MBK's) it is overall a cleaner mess to clean up.

I'm going back to aspen soon, and I will put my Morelia on Cypress mulch.

(Babies are on paper towels).

I hate the look of newspaper, and I want the convenience of spot cleaning again.
 
After many years of using aspen, I have to say I am sick of the stuff and am in the process of changing to different substrate. We have had a hotter summer than usual in a house without air conditioning, which has made more of the snakes want to soak in their water dishes. Then the dishes overflow, and mold grows in all the wet areas. Yuck! I do like that Cyprus bedding will hold water and not mold. I will keep using that for my arboreal species in display cages, as well as my rainbow boas. And for all of my colubrids, ball pythons and boa constrictors that live in racks, I am currently trialing Carefresh bedding. So far, there hasn't been any mold, it is easy to spot clean, and I think that the snakes enjoy burrowing in it.
 
wendhend said:
After many years of using aspen, I have to say I am sick of the stuff and am in the process of changing to different substrate. We have had a hotter summer than usual in a house without air conditioning, which has made more of the snakes want to soak in their water dishes. Then the dishes overflow, and mold grows in all the wet areas. Yuck! I do like that Cyprus bedding will hold water and not mold. I will keep using that for my arboreal species in display cages, as well as my rainbow boas. And for all of my colubrids, ball pythons and boa constrictors that live in racks, I am currently trialing Carefresh bedding. So far, there hasn't been any mold, it is easy to spot clean, and I think that the snakes enjoy burrowing in it.
Click to expand...
I have Carefresh for the rodents, and I use it for shipping snakes in delis, I should try it for my colubrids.
It comes in fun colors. :)
 
I use Carefresh for babies, and by the time they switch to aspen I am so happy to be done with it. I hate how it gets in water bowls and sucks up all the water, and how it mixes with poo and turns into cement that never comes off.
 
I've used many different substrates, and I prefer Aspen. My snakes seem to like it the best as well.

I used these pellets for awhile, mostly because they were cheaper in bulk than aspen. It's absorbent and you can still do spot checks fairly easily. Once it gets wet it kind of flakes out.


This is what it looks like after some "use"


This was so long ago that I can't remember what they were made of. I DO still use pine pellets like this as cat litter. I cannot stand how standard cat litter smells and sticks to my cat's feet. lol, getting a little :-offtopic

I've also used Newspaper, but .. eh. It's not super absorbent, and if you use normal run of the mill newspaper, the print can rub off on your snakes.


*shrug* for whatever reason though, I always go back to shredded aspen. I don't like how expensive it is and how messy it can be, but it's not too terrible. ..Until I have a bin pulled out to clean while a snake is eating, leave it unattended for a second and come back to find the cat playing in it. :laugh: :duck: :realhot:
 
Expensive? Aspen? You can buy it at Walmart for like three four bucks..and that cleans like 7 of my tanks...I now buy a huge thing of it..I think it weighs like forty pounds for 20 dollars..they sell them at reptile expos..you know what works great I never thought of before and is super absorbent.. Is the stuff they put in horse stalls..its cheap. Comes in big bags..and obviously if it has to absorb horse poop and pee its wicked absorbent.. Gonna check that out when I run low on the aspen..I have mice hamsters and ten snakes.I bought the big bag of aspen and have like three quarters of it left.I bought it at a reptile show February 29th for 20 bucks..so definitely not expensive.


Sent from my XT1028 using Tapatalk
 
I use a mixture of eco earth and repti bark in a 4:1 ratio, the reptibark helps with rough services to rub on when shedding and the eco earth acts like dirt and clumps when wet so my snakes go for a dip then burrow and make tunnels.
 
I've done sterile potting soil (no enrichment, just dirt), Aspen, carefresh, Kaytee soft and cozy, fleece, and paper towel. Visually, I liked the soil best, but it makes the tank so heavy. The fleece was something I just wanted to try because it could be washed, but it turned out to just be a hassle. Colored carefresh and the Kaytee stuff are really nice, come in pretty colors, and the snakes can burrow into it. I stopped using aspen because it gave me allergies (sneezing, coughing, watery eyes, etc). Right now, only Udjat and Ankh are on Kaytee, everyone else is on paper towels. The paper towel is the simplest cleanup for me, and since they're in tubs I don't feel like I'm missing out on visual interest- I just save that for the other two.

I found the aspen got everywhere, too, but so did the carefresh
 
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