Substrate Safety Issues...Safest ones for Corn Snakes?

What is the safest substrate that one can use for there Corn Snake?

Some popular substrates are becoming notorious for causing impactation problems in snakes,
what substrates are the worst offenders?

Does anyone succesfully use "rabbit Pellets" for a substrate?
Unsuccessfully?

Newspaper or paper towel is the safest. That is what I use and I like it.
I have seen snakes impact on wood chips or shavings or aspen...shredded.
I was just thinking of this 'cause of other discussions and someone saying, "yeah, but what are the chances of it happening if you feed off of it?"
I would guess it is lower but do you want to take a chance with one of yours getting the short straw? I think it is more important if you lost an animal to it. I don't like taking chances, so I use paper towel or newspaper. On the snakes that really 'need' substrate.....my kenyan sand boas I put them on yesterday's news and I feed in a separate container. I was thinking of switching to rabbit pellets though. I bed my rats (reduces URIs) and my sugar glider and I used to bed my iguana on them....now he is too big for that and is just on paper. Oh yeah, and I feed them to my rabbits too.
Sonya Gilmore

the use of substrate's is a hit and miss thing. it is verry hard to find the right one. i dont recall the last one that i used , but with the moisture and the correct heat the snake's seemed to thrive, but on the same token it had to be cleaned alot more than usual. and if you dont have the time to keep up on this then you might want to try something else. good luck.

There is more of a risk to using wood shavings over newspaper or paper towels. But, Bill and Kathy Love recomend aspen in their corn snake manual. They also say they use it for their collection. Since they are the originators of alot of the morphs on the market now, and on the cutting edge of corn morphs now, I wouldn't think they would use it with some of the most valuable corn snakes in the world if it was that dangerous. I use it and it has worked fine. It provides traction which newspaper doesn't, the snakes can also burow through it which provides added securety. It also helps them with shedding.

Originally posted by cowboyway
What is the safest substrate that one can use for there Corn Snake?

Some popular substrates are becoming notorious for causing impactation problems in snakes,
what substrates are the worst offenders?

Does anyone succesfully use "rabbit Pellets" for a substrate?
Unsuccessfully?

i have read the love book's and they and there mthod's do work, like i said it is what you are willing to do. and have the time for.so good luck on what you decide.and may you prosper.

Well aspen is popular it is not fool proof. I know of at least one litte corn that died impacted on aspen. So, maybe it is not the odds but it can happen. No corn is gonna impact on Paper Towel or Newspaper.
Look at all the lizard folks that trust Calci Sand and it is still deadly.

I have been using newspaper for substate for quite a long time, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. When the babies are in del cups, I use liners that are actually coffee filters as the substrate.

An adult corn snake ingesting bits of aspen bedding will normally not cause a problem. A baby, however, may find it a fatal mistake. I have heard of it happening enough times that I do not consider the risk to be worth it. Take a look at a bit of aspen bedding in your hand and tell me YOU would like that going down your esophagus.

Aspen is also rather dusty and the dust particles could irritate the nostrils of the small snakes. Also, if the aspen is dry, it can somewhat dessicate a small snake that is in constant contact with it. If the aspen is wet, it can promote the growth of bacteria and give insects a welcome environment to set up a home and mutiply rapidly.

Newspaper, when used and the snake stays on top of it, can be simply bundled up and thrown away. The cage is clean. With shavings, if you spot clean, you leave residue on the bottom of the cage. Eventually the smell will drive you to do a complete cleaning, and you have to break out a scraper to do a complete job of it at that time.

If you are resourceful enough, you can get newspaper for free even in large quantities. I know of no free source of aspen, even in small quantities.

So all in all, after, let's see, going on 25 years using newspaper, I have no complaints about using it and absolutely no reason to even consider changing to anything else.

First off, almost all of my snakes are fed out of their cages, so the risk was minimal even when I did use aspen. However, it isn't impossible for ingestion to occur and I've heard about problems from enough people that I am unwilling to switch back to it unless absolutely necessary. My two corns ('02 normals) are kept in a rubbermaid tub on paper towels. My sub-adult grey rat is in a small Vision enclosure on old cotton sheets. Neither of these substrates are likely to be ingested, are easy to clean, and hold humidity well. For myself, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Also, aside from the potential for impaction, aspen shavings can become lodged in the mouth while burrowing and under the scales of larger animals (both I've experienced personally and yet another reason I switched).

Dianne

I would rather not lose a snake to it. And the one baby corn I know of that died was fed outside of the cage too. The ingestion was incidental, while it was burrowing.

Now that makes sense...
Why with the money I save, I can buy more Corn Snakes

Not hard to track down free newspaper, thats for sure.
Gotta love free...or just this side off it. Works for me.
The fat ol' big city Sunday issue alone would work for a good "stash" of affordable substrate for most hobby Corn Keepers needs.