never relised how damp the bedding was

[Nicky]

I was cleaning my snakes cage on friday and i felt her bedding( expanadble cocanut bedding ) and to my horror it was extremly damp and cold i took a blow dryer and drieed it as best i could befor having to leave and finishing it tonight i checked her over and she has no signs of resportory problems. what things should i be checking for all i knew to check for was breathing. how serious is this i don;t know hopw long its been this damp. can i switch to aspen shaving or are they harmful to corns?
any info appricated
thx
kayla

[Auskan]

Aspen shavings are safe for corns.

[marisa]

Aspen is fine.

I hate coconut anything personally. Especially that forest floor in a brick stuff. It gets mouldy because it stays wet and frankly its messy and hard to clean properly IMHO.

I'd switch to aspen, or paper towel .

Marisa

[Auskan]

LOL. I used that forest floor in a brick stuff once. I used the exact amount of water that it said to, and ended up with this mush - it was almost like soup! I had to put it in cookie trays on a low temp in the oven for about a week to get it dried out enough to use!

[vanderkm]

Aspen is preferable to coconut husk bedding for corns in my opinion - the coconut husk is either too damp or when dry it is very dusty and likely to be inhaled or stuck to feeders. Aspen shavings, paper towel, newspaper are all good bedding for corns. The processed wood product beddings like CareFresh and SoftSorbant are also great.

mary v.

[Nicky]

thx everyone i was wondering why she had been so inactive latly i supose because of the cold temps but she hasn;t gone into hibernation or anything which is good switching her to aspen tommorow.
kayla:)

[shmotz666]

well done nicky, good thing you realised. aspen is a sure winner IMHO. :)

[Katt]

I'm an avid fan of coir and peat moss, but b/c I'm limited to what I can use.

I dislike newspaper, and paper towel is alright for babies, but wood, aspen and pine is truly hated, with passion, truly truly hated. I'll never use it! Heck I won't even recommend it!

Why such hatred, well, I'm highly allergic, so I'm biased. Aspen is Vanan's choice in bedding, but he can't use it b/c I would get well and truly sick.

Coir and peat moss do get very dusty, and coir can get moldy, but then allergies aside, I hate how aspen slivers get into noses and all that horrendous dust flies everywhere, <sneeze>. You just have to keep an eye on how damp your substrate is, (I find the dampess VERY handy for our extremely dry climate here, helps in shedding).

But I digress, I shouldn't turn this into a debate just b/c I despise wood.

[Katt]

Also, keep in mind Florida isn't a very dry place to begin with. (That's where corns can be found.) It's swampy.

[Nicky]

thats true but i read in in one of my cornsnake manuals that prolonged exposure to damp conditions can cause respitory infections and scale rot does anyone know if that true or not?
thx for everyones advice :)
kayla

[Katt]

Prolonged damp conditions would cause scale rot, if there was a lot of bacteria in the substrate, like urates and feces. However, if you let coir dry out once a while, you should have a problem, plus taking out your snakes will dry out the belly too.