andrew, although the slate might look good it's not practical, the best thing is to keep it simple (for snakes anyway) news paper is the best substrate as it is easy to remove and the less you have to remove from the enclosure for cleaning the better, and if you are ever unfortunate enough to get mites, they are much easier to treat in an enclosure with less nooks and crannys.
cheers HK
Totally disagree...
Not to go off on a rant here or anything here, but newspaper for snakes, lizards etc SUCKS THE BIG ONES, to put it mildly.
Yes I have certainly used newspaper and depending on the time of year I use it intermittently.
Now this is not directed at anyone specifically but is a general observation.
Frankly I am sick to death of people trying to do everything on the cheap, wondering whether to spend $10 on decent substrate, or spend an extra $50 on setting up the enclosure properly. YOU ARE DEALING WITH A LIVE ANIMAL subsequently if you are too cheap to do it properly then don’t bloody do it. Too many people are more concerned about how many animals they can get in their collection rather than worrying about setting just one enclosure up properly.
So back to the topic, the substrate topic is done every week or so, but never the less.
Not sure why you would use ceramic tiles, I don’t really get that at all. Do you mean you are going to put heating under the tile or something? If you are thinking of using the tile so that it is easier to clean, then just use a glass enclosure.
News paper sucks, that is plain and simple. If you need to change newspaper, you need to remove the newspaper which often involves, removing everything from the enclosure, just to get it all out and then replacing the paper and putting everything back in there. Using “particle” type substrates i.e. bark, the cat litter type things, sand, is far easier to clean the enclosure. If there is a poop, you scoop that bit up.
I personally am not a fan of the cat litter type stuff, due to the dust from it.
Below is MR Womas enclosure, and it is by far the most attractive and simplest enclosure to maintain. If there is a poop, I scoop. If he overflows the water bowl, the bark soaks it up, which then evaporates. It looks great, and Mr Woma obviously doesn’t get stressed as there is plenty of ENRICHMENT to get into. i.e. he can hide and dig in the substrate with no problems. Bark and sand I find far easier to clean rather than newspaper. As far as mites are concerned, remove the animal from the enclosure, rather than removing everything from the enclosure. If there isn’t a food source, the mites wont stay there, and will essentially die.
So personally if asking for advice I would say, spend the money on doing right the first time and making them look good, Certainly using tiles, with heating beneath them works a treat, but I wouldn’t just leave them bare.
Most people use particular items so that it makes their life easier or cheaper, personally I would rather spend the extra bit and make sure that the animals environment is better for it.
Anyway sorry for the long post.
