Shingleback questions

[Pyror]

A friend won one of those shingles from the ballot, and being only new to herp keeping, doesn't know alot about keeping them. I also have had no experience with them. Could someone tell me whether good ol' breeders choice recycled paper cat litter would be a suitable substrate? (This is what the shingle is currently being bedded on)

And does anyone know of a decent link to a Shingleback caresheet?

Ta,

Ben

 

[Gregory]

In my opinion, for what it's worth Ben, Breeders Choice is crap. If people saw the Coastal I saw a few weeks ago gagging on a mouthfull of BC they'd never use it again.
Use sheets of Butcher's paper or newspaper.



Greg.

 

[Adam]

I agree with Greg on this one. BC is bad for your snake, cause they ingest it with thier food. I like marine carpet, you get ot from Bunning hardware, or fine sand also works well.

 

[peterescue]

I have had no problems with BC. Its not bad for your snake. Why are you feeding in the enclosure?
Dont forget that your snake has abreathing tube in its lower palate.
So it doesnt have a gag reflex like we do.
Marine carpet is extremely ugly.
So is butchers paper which has nothing on BC.
BC of course looks so natural and aesthetic.
I put the lizards food on sheets of kitchen paper and have no problem there either.
Peter

 

[peterescue]

Oh! this of course gets away from the original question.
Didnt someone ask this question the other day.
There was a link to Mick Clemson care sheet posted. Would someone like to do it again for Pyror.
Peter

 

[instar]

http://www.users.bigpond.com/snake.man/Lizards/rogosa.htm

 

[Nome]

I'm ordering a 125kg of rice hulls as I've heard that's a good substrate. At present using BC for the shinglebacks, and I serve their food on a big plastic tray thingy to stop them injesting any of the BC. Looking forward to trying the rice hulls.

 

[hugsta]

I have two shingles and bluey in one enclosure, I used to keep them on BC but found that they looked like s**t as fine bits of the paper stuck to them after they fed or went through their water dish. They looked like they were covered in powder half the time. They are fairly messy so I find paper much cheaper and easier to replace.

 

[Nome]

I find the only problem with paper is that they rip it up as they seem to need somethign to 'snuggle' into at night, or during the day when they want to sleep. I was replacing the paper twice a day, which is why i looked for other alternatives.

 

[Gregory]

Oh! this of course gets away from the original question.

Well not really Pete. What it is doing is addressing Ben's question regarding the suitability of BC as a substrate. Some are for and some are agin' it. No biggie.

 

[peterescue]

Be interested in how the rice husks pan out. Whats the price like. How many litres is 125k?
Hugsta, how often do you change the BC. Sounds like you need to do it more frequently. I guess this is what Greg is referring to about people aging it.

 

[Pyror]

Thanks for the replies. These, and the caresheet link (thanks Instar) have answered all of my questions, and a couple more that i had come up with in the time that i was off line. As it stands, we're going to keep the shingle on BC for now, with a likely shift to fine grade sand in the near future.

With regard to suitable substrates for snakes, i prefer paper to anything else. I find it easy to clean up, even though it's not all that aesthetically pleasing. i also use absorbent paper for my bearded dragons, although i'm planning on switching to fine grade sand in the near future, just to make it look a little nicer.

Ben.

 

[africancichlidau]

I think he said agin as in against not ageing as in me

 

[peterescue]

I think he said agin as in against not ageing as in me

No :shock: Really :? your teasing me arent you :cry:

 

[Nome]

Hi Peter,

The rice hulls come in 125kg bag, I'll let you know how many litres it is when it arrives on Monday. It is $50 for the whole 125kg, and this was the smallest bag I could get. They said it's the size of a wool bail, so I'm a little scared where I'm going to keep it. I have 2 huge indoor enclosures for my shingles, so it takes a 20kg bag of BC to cover the bottom (I also put newspaper underneath the BC), so every week when I change the BC it costs $20 at the moment. I've heard rice hulls are great for absorbance and keeping the shinglebacks dry (needed here in humid QLD). I'll let you know how I find it after I've used it for a couple of days.

~Nome

 

[Magpie]

Nome, I believe rice hulls are non absorbant, they let the moisture through to the substrate substrate hence keeping the shingles totally dry. Happy to be wrong though, I've never used them myself.