To Substrate or Not To Substrate :)

[Whisper]

Hi there,

I have two pythons at present and they are currently on green marine carpet, it looks great but is becoming a pain to clean. So I am now looking at all my options for substrate.

I do not like newspaper because it looks horrible and love to look at my snakes and whenever I read the paper the ink comes off on my fingers, is this a problem for snakes in the longterm,

What subsrate do you use and why?


Many Thanks
Whisper

P.S I have enclosed pics of my to enclosures and the new one I am building.
My snakes love to move the rocks around and climb and hide

[SlothHead]

you could use butchers paper if you wanted.

Do a search there are plenty of threads regarding substrate.

I personally use brown marine carpet. Never astro turf or fake grass as it can cut the snake

try a few and see what you like most.

[pythoness]

newspaper's best. but if you don't like the look try butchers paper, or go to your local newspaper and buy end of rolls. still news paper but without the ink.
I think newspapers great, might not look good, but it's clean and hyginic, free and disposable

[Valley Reptile Supplies]

breeders choice kitty litter
looks ok easy to clean

[gaara]

Oz Brick or whatever its called.


All the benefits of Breeders Choice

None of the ugly greyness, and no impaction if ingested.

[jordo]

I wouldn't leave that stack of rocks (see the first pic) there if I was you for fear of it falling and possibly injuring your snakes. jmo

[hornet]

i use newspaper, but since you dont like the look i would give breeders choice or something similar a go

[Tatelina]

What about big slabs of massive floor tiles? *shrugs*
Someone else here uses shade cloth.... I guess you could try using weedmatting if you wanted.
I would be cautious about the rocks aswell..but otherwise looks good!

[richard70au]

I use marine carpet, you get it from bunnings for about $20 per metre.

I cut two pieces so when one gets dirty, you can just swap it over with the new one and clean the old, takes no time to hose off and dry, and your snake is back in his enclosure quickly with the minimal fussing around.

News paper may be cheap, but looks tacky IMO, never used kitty litter type stuff but alot of substrate threads where people are concerned about it being swallowed.

So IMO stick with the marine carpet.

[Julie-anne]

paper is always easy. But if you don't like the look of newspaper just use butchers paper or absorbent paper towels from Woolies (you can get really wide rolls). Works good for me

[salebrosus]

I use newspaper, when you have so many animals to clean it makes it so much easier. I use to use the green carpet but it did become a pain in the butt to clean.

There is something i use on my goannas and childrens python though- i think it's called Oz litter and looks a bit nicer than Breeders Choice. Hugsta sells it from Strictly Reptiles and it covered me for a few cages. I'm tempted to use it on ym Woma's as they are always trying to burrow into the newspaper.

I also use to use my old Auto Action magazines but soon stopped that as i found the paper when it got wet stuck to the melamine and it was a bugger to get off.

Simone.

[Chimera]

BY the sounds of it you don't want a substrate that you have to pull out and wash which removed most of the astroturf/marine carpet/shade cloth options.

Newspaper doesn't present any issues for the snake but as you mentioned there is a possibility of the newspaper rubbing off onto the snake (which again causes no issues, just looks bad).

I use breeders choice in my enclosures about 4-5cm deep. The advantage of this is you can simple pull out the soiled parts and only need to do a full clean/disinfect every 3 months or so (depending on how the enclosure is smelling or whether there are some bad soiled areas). Using a deep layer of breeders choice will draw the moisture from any defecations down into the substrate which tends to leave the enclosure smelling a bit better.

[cyclamen]

i just did my new enclosure in vynal tiles. it looks great and is easy to clean, you just wipe it with a cloth

[Whisper]

Excellent .. thanks everyone for your suggestions

The rocks I have in the enclosures may look precarious however they are a fixed unit with a large base, the cages look naturalistic without any danger All the hides and plants have been fixed ( i use liquid nails to hold all the rocks together the only things loose are a few smaller scattered stones (they love pushing these around) and the hide lids. My pythons are also quite large and powerful not hatchies and love using thier strength to manipulate thier cage furniture

I have been quite content to use the marine carpet and have several sheets cut to size to save time with cleaning, I might just stick to that or even some butchers paper.

I was lead to believe that both my MD and my Bredlli are semi-aborial and they do spend allot of time on thier branch and perch, what are the pythons that burrow? or would mine do that given the chance?


Many Thanks
Whisper

[Chris1]

i use sand but cover most of it with big bits of slate,...he tends to poop in a gap (cos their rough irregular sized bits) so i pull the slate out, scoop up the wet sand and poo and put the slate back,...its quick and easy and looks nice,...