Substrate Help!

[traf2006]

can i use eco earth with my corn snakes? i bought quite a lot of it thinking i could use it with my bearded dragons but have since found out i cant. :shrugs:

 

[SnakeLuvrs]

i dont know what eco earth is, but i would recommend aspen shavings.. or keep it simple with papertowel...

 

[traf2006]

i have then on beach chippings at the moment there about 3 - 4' i got them as hatchlings.

 

[Roy Munson]

can i use eco earth with my corn snakes? i bought quite a lot of it thinking i could use it with my bearded dragons but have since found out i cant. :shrugs:

I did a search for eco earth (I had never heard of it) in this forum (husbandry). There were many threads that mention it. Joe's response on the top of page one of the thread I linked seems to answer your question. I love the search function.

substrate

 

[Gintha]

Yesterday's News is also a good substrate =) Theres a link on here somewhere to a page hosted by a woman who claims to have found sharp items in her bags of YN and also claims Purina told her they use saw house floor sweepings in the product. However, I phoned the company and they assure me that that information is 100% untrue, and I have also never found anything sharp in the litter in 15 years of use for various critters. I did however find a piece of broken grinder blade in woodchips once.. but only once =) I WAS using eco-earth but find its too expensive for me, where as 20kg of YN is $8.00 (here 5kg of eco-earth is $32.50).. and I have no access to aspen ~,~

 

[Roy Munson]

I did however find a piece of broken grinder blade in woodchips once.. but only once =)

Oh no, another thing for me to obsess about. Now I'll be dragging magnets through my aspen looking for blade shards.

But really, thanks for the heads-up. I guess what you don't know can not only hurt you, but your snakes too.

 

[BeckyG]

I use eco earth with my snakes and have never had a problem with it. I like it because I think it looks more like regular dirt than any other substrate I've used. I get mine from Drs Foster and Smith for $4.99 for a three brick pack.

 

[MegF.]

Sounds like Bed-a-Beast.

 

[traf2006]

i'v heard it's similar to bed-a-beast, so i can use eco earth without a prob with my snakes? it's really cheap here it's £2.50 for 3 Bricks thats roughly about $6 i think.

 

[Gintha]

Would you folks suggest Carefresh to Yesterday's News? The pet store here just started to carry it, its a little more expensive than the YN, but doesn't come with the strong newspaper smell hehe.

We also have a corn cob substrate available here.. anyone ever try it for corns? I used to use it for skinks hehe. For those that don't know what I mean, its ground up corn cob (pieces are around 3-4mm and look like little balls) and its steralized.

 

[Bobo's Mama]

I wouldn't use Carefresh for snakes. It is very dry and dusty and I think that it would draw any moisture away from your snake's viv possibly creating bad sheds. It makes me sneeze so I can't imagine what it would be like for the snakes. But I've heard that some people do use it. Also, corn cob is more likely to get moldy than newspaper or aspen. I use aspen or cypress mulch. I've never tried Eco-Earth, but I'm sure its good too, just as long as it isn't too wet.

 

[Roy Munson]

We also have a corn cob substrate available here.. anyone ever try it for corns? I used to use it for skinks hehe. For those that don't know what I mean, its ground up corn cob (pieces are around 3-4mm and look like little balls) and its steralized.

When I got my first corn 21 years ago, the pet store recommended corn cob substrate. I was 14, so I trusted them as experts (no cornsnakes.com or Kathy Love manual to set me straight back then). The poor thing died of an intestinal impaction from the stuff within a year. Of course, I was unaware of the dangers of substrate ingestion at that time, and fed him in his enclosure.

But even with that risk eliminated, the stuff gets moldy very quickly.

 

[Gintha]

Thanks guys =) Guess I'll stick with Yesterday's News then =)