Towels-Suitable Substrate

[T.O-SK8TER]

I was washing my snakes Astroturf today and got thinking. Would bathroom towels make a good substrate. The reason why I may want to use towels is beacause they can go in my washing machine and the dryer. It takes me a half hour to wash and rinse Astroturf by hand. Astroturf can not be put in the washingmachine and dryer, it leaves rubber pieces everywhere. It takes another 2 hours to let it air dry. Using towels would save me a whole lot of time and effort. They would cost about the same as the Astroturf. I would need enough to cover 20 square feet, thats about 4 large towels which would cost $25.00 and the Astroturf would be about $40.00

What do you think is better, SAFER, less time consuming?
Does anyone else use towels?

[Corey Woods]

I hate astroturf.....use the bath towels......I've been using towel on some of my snakes for about 10 years now.

Corey

[daver676]

I think you would need to be careful about any detergents you were using to wash the towels, including things like fabric softeners and dryer sheets. Even if your washing in a light bleach solution, there may be some residual soap in the washing machine from it's previous use.

I just picked up some colourfast felt carpet for my ball python enclosure. You can get it at any fabric store, and it's cheaper than bath towels.

Dave

[vanderkm]

We use towels and flannel sheets for our boas - we don't like the look of newspaper and with the volume of pee these guys put out, we were never happy that we were getting all the contaminated shavings out of the cage without removing them all. It is easy to remove the sheet and towel (towel is under their hide box for a bit of extra padding) and wash the lino floor of the cage. We have double sets of sheets and towels for each snake so we can replace them when the other set is being washed. We just use laundry detergent and rinse - no softener, no bleach, no problems,

mary v.

[Pixie]

Great thread as I always wondered about this very subject!

I have tons of old towels that aren't being used and I've always wondered if they could be used with my snakes as substrate. It would be so easy to wash them :) I'll be giving it a try shortly!

Dave: The felt sounds good but how do you wash it? Or do you use it only once? My experiences with washing felt fabric in the past was disastrous!!! lol

Pixie

[marisa]

I just started using old towels for my BP. So far since I have so many old towels I have just cut the pieces I have needed and thrown them away.

When I run my towel supply down a bit I am planning on washing them and reusing them. My BP really seems to like them but then again who frikkin knows LOL. :) I know I like them! But they wouldn't be good for colubrids in my opinion. To many changes.

Marisa

[Alicewave]

I was thinking yesterday that old T-shirts would make a good substrate. Anyone try this? For laundering I would use Tide Free or something. Just make sure to wash/dry on hot so it kills everything.

[Corey Woods]

When I was the towels I use Tide soap, bounty fabric softener and the environmentally friendly bleach (which is just peroxide not bleach). I've never had a problem doing it that way.

Corey

[ngubitz]

T.O.... What about good ole newspaper??.... It's relatively inexpensive; it's real easy to NOT clean; it doesn't promote the hatching or thriving of "bugs"; and besides, most animals love the comics!.... lol
I've used newspaper for housing all my animals for years!.... I've never had a problem, because you don't have to do all the changing all at once.... when you finish reading a section, put it in a tank??

....Neil

[T.O-SK8TER]

I want my cage to look sum-what natural. So newspaper is out of the question. I would use brown or green towels!

[ThEmAdHaTtEr]

Ive been using towels from the beginning. First I would just use lone bare towels, but when a snake defficates or whatever You have to wash it. dry it, etc. So now I use towel, with pepr towels on top. Seems to be working just fine. Its nice and soft and easy to clean. The pic kinda freaked, but heres the general idea: http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1461sab_cage-med.jpg