Sand Boas on Newspaper?

[Tiny Boidae]

Hi, I've read that if you provide the sand boa with lots of hides, then you can keep them on newspaper. I don't know the legitimacy of this, but if it's true than it would make my life SO much easier in regards to spot cleaning and then the big haul. I hate. hate. HATE. aspen as it gets every well and has this strong, woody smell (don't get me started on what happens when they spill the water dish. It ain't fun :unhappy: ).

Anyways, if I did this would it be better to gradually transition them onto shorter and shorter substrate? Or just cut the crap and get it over with? Also, how many hides would I have to provide? Any more than necessary? Thanks all who reply :D

[Aaron_S]

I would just go with a different substrate. Coco husk would be fine.

[Aaron_S]

I also used beat chip for mine. Similar to aspen but I found it less of a smell and easier to spot clean.

[toddnbecka]

I use a mixture of aspen and commercial paper bedding for my thayeri kings (also like to burrow). The paper seems to hold it together better, and there are little holes/tunnels all over the place. As for spilling the water bowl use a heavier dish, or one that's shaped to resist tipping over.

[Tiny Boidae]

Aaron_S-

I'll look into both, thanks for the input. I've tried so many substrates over the years with them, and aspen has to be down there with sand as far as favorites are concerned.


toddnbecka-

It's not that they're tipping it over when they drink it, but rather I used to just set the bowl down ontop of the substrate, which encouraged them to dig underneath it as they like to be under stuff. This, of course, caused the bowl to spill everywhere and make a mess of the aspen. I figured out what was going on after a while as I kept finding the little guys underneath the bowl when I went to lift it, so I dug it down to rest on the bottom of the tub and placed some corkflats for them to dig under. They seem to enjoy the added security and I haven't had any problems with the water dish recently (although the moss I put in when they shed... That's a different story). I'm just looking for something that's a little more durable against water.

[prairiepanda]

I picked up a $25 cross-cut shredder from a nearby drugstore that cuts paper into pieces about 0.25"x1" bits and pick up free newspapers from downstairs and shred them. That way, I can provide a good burrowing medium for my pine snakes that I can replenish for free! They are able to make tunnels that hold their shape decently, and spot cleaning is a breeze(much easier than full sheets of newspaper, as you need to change the entire sheet every time poop or spilled water appears). It basically acts like shredded aspen, but is free :P

As for being "durable against water"...well, if the water dish gets dumped then yeah you'll have to replace all the bedding right away. Small spills from snakes splashing around I notice tend to dry up pretty quickly if I leave them, though. To prevent my pine snakes from burrowing under the water dishes and making a mess, I give them heavy-bottomed ceramic dishes and set them directly on the bottom of the enclosure(the water dishes are slightly deeper than the substrate) and they've never been able to get under them.

[Tiny Boidae]

Prariepanda-

Yeah I used to use those shallow dishes for them since I heard, at first, that water dishes could bring the humidity up too much (bull honkey) so I didn't need anything too deep. I've come to correct this now, and spills are a thing of the past :)

I'm talking about minor spills as such, as when they spill a bit of water or track moss into the aspen, it absorbs EVERYTHING and gets nasty pretty quick (ever seen green aspen? It doesn't look healthy). Of course if I dun goof and spill the entire bowl I'm going to clean it, but aspen is horrible with even the minor spills.

As far as the paper goes, I used to tear up shreds of paper towel when I had only a couple but I found that this took forever and I needed almost half a roll to fill a ten gallon up with four inches of substrate. I have a paper shredder that's collecting dust in the basement, so I might give this a go. I'll probably try several of the methods on different snakes and see what I like best to be frank.

[prairiepanda]

My method can be a bit time consuming with the cheap shredders because they can only handle a few sheets at a time. Mine does 6 sheets, and I have to fold each page from the newspaper twice to get it to fit through the slot so each page becomes equivalent to 4 sheets, meaning I have to do one page at a time. My pines each get an entire newspaper to give them 4" of substrate in their current little 17" x 20" enclosures, and my hondo gets half a newspaper because she doesn't dig. So I do need to set some time aside for folding and shredding paper. But it does last a long time because you can spot clean and as I said minor spills tend to dry up quite quickly.