• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Aspen shavings vs Carefresh as substrate?

~Just Curious~

~Just Curious~

Gotta ask!
Joined
Feb 6, 2011
Messages
569
Reaction score
24
Points
0
Location
Orange, CA
Pretty straight foward question: Which would be better?
It would be used in display cages holding pacific gopher snakes and woma pythons. I want to keep the tanks low humidity. Also I haven't seen it yet, but I think my gophers might want to burrow.

Currently I use aspen shavings without any problem, but I just noticed that carefresh is much cheaper and I remember hearing some people say they used it as substrate...

What do you guys think?
 
I currently use carefresh for my womas. works great, very absorbent, they've been breeding on it as well. I find the pricing just the opposite though. Aspen is much cheaper than carefresh my way.
 
CareFresh vs. Aspen

I use both, and coconut coire also. Each has advantages, and I like Aspen for burrowers especially. Aspen looks nice, it can be packed and sort of hold a burrow shape. However, it is indeed expensive.

CareFresh is great if you want minimal humidity. It is drying, it will dehydrate some snakes, i.e. Lampropeltis, so be cautious of that. Highly variable I am sure depending on ambient humidity etc., but in general, it sucks the moisture. I use it with good results wth E. johnii sand boas. I have used it a lot, but I provide a humidity box/shelter hide for snakes to give them a choice and an escape from the CareFresh dryness. Simply a plastic box with some vermiculite/moss/potting soil mix which I keep slightly damp to offer humid shelter during shedding etc.

Both products are easy to dispose of, and CareFresh will dry out defecations quickly, so it may help reduce odors etc. As I said, I use both, CareFresh for the driest environment, and Aspen for others. For high humidity, I like the coconut coire (ground up coconut husks). And for my high metabolism Indigos, I use newsprint.

good luck, Vic
 
Thank you guys!
My gophers are burrowing really good in the aspen and my humidity's fine as is. I think I'll stick to aspen, if it's not broke don't fix it and all that.

It's nice to know that about carefresh though, if I ever get a real low humidity herp I'll keep that in mind!

Thanks again~
 
Back
Top