Pine Bark Mulch bad for snakes?

i have a question that has probably been asked a million times i'm just getting different answers everywhere i look... i know cedar is a huge no no, but my question is what about pine bark? ive heard pine shavings were bad as well but again my question plainly is : Is pine bark mulch safe to use in reptile cages, specifically snakes? any help anyone could give me would be awesome

Originally Posted by Grimaldi123

i have a question that has probably been asked a million times i'm just getting different answers everywhere i look... i know cedar is a huge no no, but my question is what about pine bark? ive heard pine shavings were bad as well but again my question plainly is : Is pine bark mulch safe to use in reptile cages, specifically snakes? any help anyone could give me would be awesome

I would stay away from pine bark for the same reasons you stay away from pine shavings.The oils in pine shavings that lead to respiritory problems in herps are most likely found in the inside of the bark as well. I use newspaper exclusively in over 30 enclosures and have no problems with any of my animals.
happy herping

thanks for the insight. the only reason i even was considering it is because i just moved in to a new house that has like 40 big bags in the shed that i was hoping to utilize.. owell

I used pine mulch for a while, with no ill effects. I can't answer the question of whether it could cause problems over enough time, though. I liked it because it was typically ground finer than the cypress I can get locally, but it gets to be a pain to clean.

I would buy aspen shavings, personally. While cypress works good, it's arguably doing more damage to the environment than good because heavy machinery must be brought into wetlands to harvest the cypress and can potentially negatively impact these sensitive ecosystems.

Aspen, on the other hand, is your typical "junk tree", fast growing, considered a pest by foresters because one individual can essentially create huge stands of genetic clones that can compete with other more valuable timber and wildlife food producing plants, and has stem/root sprouting, so once you cut it it grows back. That's a far more sustainable product.

Pine does in fact contain Aromatic Phenol's, which are the organic chemical constituent present in Cedar that result in respiratory toxicity. Though pine products seem to be better tolerated than cedar products, the risks associated with toxicity are essentially the same if your pet is exposed for a long duration of of time. This is not to say that every pet exposed to pine will develop clinical signs, but the risks associated with exposure remain the same. Cedar is definitely the worse of the two evils, but Pine can result in toxicity too. I would recommend avoiding both! Instead, I would recommend using Aspen wood mulch. Aspen has been shown to be much safer for use with pocket pets and I have had great personal success using it with my reptiles.

thanks for all your help guys.something cool actually happened for me. in the february edition of reptiles magazine there were a few pages just donated to retic care which i found super helpful. it seems to be a 50/50 split on feedback with the issue so i am going to avoid it for now but perhaps change my mind in the future after i gather some more information. thanks again

Wow, that's a bit scary in terms of statistics lol! And a very wise decision on your behalf. Even from a general public survey, a 50/50 split is pretty concerning. Thanks for the update on the information you obtained!