• 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....

substrate for my carpets?

N

nikita04

New member
Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Messages
107
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
52
Location
West Virginia
Right now i have jungle and jaya carpets. I use indoor outdoor carpet on the bottom, but was thinking of changing it to something different. What would be the best substrate to use, as far as easiest for me and safest for the snakes.

Lawrence

I have 10 carpets in total.
 
What are you looking to have the substrate accomplish?

My preference: I personally use aspen bedding for my JCPs. I found it scoops out easily with a dust pan and it looks good in the tanks. It absorbs heat nicely and the snakes seem to like it. My boas love to snuggle in the shavings, so I think they prefer it over dirt. The JCPs seem to like it just as well, I have also found them buried in the aspen.

I know some that use vinyl, it is easy to clean, in fact you can just hose it down. Put newspaper on top and wipe it down with each newspaper change.
 
I use cypress mulch for my carpets. It's no better or worse than aspen in my opinion, I just like the darker look of it, looks more natural to me.
I also use it for my boas and womas and some of the ball pythons.

As for indoor/outdoor carpet, there's two types. One is like fake grass made of plastic with a rubber backing, used for doormats and such, and the other is tightly woven carpet with a rubber backing use to cover concrete porches or carports.
The plastic type is totally unsuitable as a substrate. I've seen snakes kept on this and the floor of the cage was covered with belly scales. It's just too rough.
The other type though works fine as a substrate. It's the same carpet as ZooMed sells for an exorbant price, but it has a rubber backing making is much more durable.
I've used that type in the past as a substrate for various things. To me though cypress or aspen is easier to deal with. The carpet has to be washed and it has to be switched out after the snake defecates, whereas with the particle substrate it can be scooped out for spot cleaning without having to clean the whole cage every time the snake defecates.
 
I've used cypress and aspen. Both are fine. Lately I've switched some to Carefresh and that works really well to contain spills and excrement. As Clay said, these types of substrates lend themselves well to spot cleaning.
 
substrate for carpets

Thanks every body for your responses. One other question is, can i buy the aspen bedding or the cypress mulch from places like Lowes or Home Depot?

Lawrence
 
I've never seen aspen at those places, but they do carry cypress.
I found big bags of aspen at Tractor Supply last week. First time I've found it in bulk around here.
 
Back
Top