New paper, not newspaper

Here I go again with my theories, ...but,... I think it's entirely possible that the ink in newspaper could have a cumulative effect in Indigos. Of course I can't prove it, but if they live on that stuff, all day, every day, their bodies are going to absorb/injest a certain amount of the ink. And God only knows what kind of chemical crap lurks in there. Maybe this would explain infertility in snakes that were previously productive. Maybe the stuff takes time to build up and cause problems??? Who knows. Personaly I'm currently using a recycled paper product, that I buy on the roll, and then cut to length. But They still go underneath it, and destroy my best efforts to keep a clean, neat cage. So I'm thinking of switching to aspen chips.
T.

I'm pretty sure most newsprint these days is made from soy beans. Worth Googling maybe.

Doug T

the verdict has been that the newsprint these days is entirely with soy and positively not harmful anymore. Now the old days is another story with chemical ink where we use to just go down ( you can still do this i understand ) and bought the un-printed papers that a newspaper company ALWAYS have due to malfunctions of the printers or whatever. But I'm not aware of any problems anymore with the non-chemical news print in or on newspapers anymore.

for the input. Yah, Iv'e heard the same stuff. Still I have to wonder what all is in there. I know that whenever I'm way down south, my nose tells me when I get anywhere near a paper factory, because of whatever chemicals they use. So my gut feeling is that there must be trace amounts of something in the paper itself, and I still wonder about the ink. I'm going over to the local newspaper office today, and talk to them about all of the above. I'll come back and let ya'll know what I find out.
T.

I went down to the local newspaper office today, and purchased an "end roll". Which consists of a 42" wide roll, with several hundred yards of blank, unprinted paper. My local newspaper office sells their end rolls for about $6.50 . Six and a half bucks is WAY cheaper than the recycled paper cage liner I was using. And it has no ink. It's not as thick, but it's thick enough, way more economical, and I know where it's been.

I talked to the in house paper expert, and he said that newspaper ink is "MOSTLY" made from soy. But there are other unknown additives. And colored ink has much more unknown stuff in it. But the paper itself is very clean. He said the only thing you might find in plain paper is sulfur. Which is fairly benign. He also informed me that southern paper mills use a great deal more sulfur, and he gets his paper from way up north. So it should be very clean.

So now I'm back to newspaper. Again. Although this time, it's much cheaper, and way cleaner, with no additives. Now only time will tell how well it works. Other folks say they like it,...I guess I'll find out.
T.

If you are going to use printed newspaper, it should be standard to practice to allow it to age at least two weeks prior to use as an enclosure liner.
As Tony mentioned, most local newspaper printers will sell the "end roll" of unprinted paper, while many still give these away, so long as you agree to return the spool.
Also, printed paper has been shown to harbor anti-bacterial properties and I have seen little to nothing which would indicate the use of such harboring a negative impact on the health of well maintained captive reptiles. However, I would certainly avoid the use of color print..

Best regards,

Jeff Snodgres

Originally Posted by thesnakeman

Here I go again with my theories, ...but,... I think it's entirely possible that the ink in newspaper could have a cumulative effect in Indigos. Of course I can't prove it, but if they live on that stuff, all day, every day, their bodies are going to absorb/injest a certain amount of the ink. And God only knows what kind of chemical crap lurks in there. Maybe this would explain infertility in snakes that were previously productive. Maybe the stuff takes time to build up and cause problems??? Who knows. Personaly I'm currently using a recycled paper product, that I buy on the roll, and then cut to length. But They still go underneath it, and destroy my best efforts to keep a clean, neat cage. So I'm thinking of switching to aspen chips.
T.

Why I don't even bother with paper anymore. Goes under it and craps up the cage anyways. I swear, he goes around the damn cage squirtin' in every corner and difficult to clean spot sayin' "I'll bet he has fun with THIS !". I now have TWO nice big vision cages to cycle him back-n-forth as he ****s 'em up. Makes life a hell of a lot easier

Sometimes they're like a two year old who's just discovered how to paint pictures on the wall with the turd in his diaper. And they seem to like to play a game called "hide the poop". Making me stick my head in each cage, and snifff away until I locate the hidden treasure. Just another reason to let them out onto the lawn every chance I get! Every pile they leave in the yard, is one less for me to worry about.
T.

Originally Posted by thesnakeman

Sometimes they're like a two year old who's just discovered how to paint pictures on the wall with the turd in his diaper. And they seem to like to play a game called "hide the poop". Making me stick my head in each cage, and snifff away until I locate the hidden treasure. Just another reason to let them out onto the lawn every chance I get! Every pile they leave in the yard, is one less for me to worry about.
T.

Got me crackin' up with that I have to stick my head in his cage almost every time. Such a joy. Sometimes, after de-crapping his living quarters I take a shower LOL.

Seems crazy I suppose, but it really IS worth having two nice big cages to cycle him back-n-forth as he paints LOL.