What is the "perfect" substrate?

[thamneil]

Hey guys. So doing some feedings today, I reflected on my substrates and realized that I don't really like either of them. Aspen always sticks to food items and the bark is pretty dusty when stirred up.What are your preffered substrates? It would be nice to find a perfect substrate but unfortunately this will never happen! :p

[kibakiba]

You're going t o get a wide range of answers. I prefer carefresh over anything else. I want to try coco husk, but it's too expensive for now.

[thamneil]

Oh I know! Everyone has a preference. You don't find the carefrest to be dusty? I have used carefresh ultra and wasn't impressed.

[kibakiba]

I only have dust at the bottom of the bag. I use it for my frogs too, they get the stuff at the bottom of the bag, since I keep them slightly moist. Their tank s half dirt (planted enclosure) and half carefresh, where they like to spend their time away from the plants.

[d_virginiana]

I normally use carefresh, but I found a giant bag of aspen on sale today, so I'm going to be checking that one out next time I change their bedding. Normally it's not dusty.

I really hate coco husk. I normally use coco-fiber for my frog, and accidentally picked up coco husk once. I don't like all the little strings that it has on it. It was kind of like reptibark but with long strands that would come off and stick to food.

[Invisible Snake]

Most substrates stick to the food which is why I recommend you feed your garters in a separate substrate-free enclosure. I am currently using aspen shavings but it doesn't hold humidity well so I'm going to switch over to cypress mulch and give that a try.

[katach]

We like a mix of reptibark and a high quality aspen shaving. We stopped buying our aspen from walmart and are buying at our local feed store. $6.99 for compressed 2500 cu in. bag. It's bigger shavings and little to no dust. It looks great and works very well with the reptibark mixed in.

[NickB]

Soil is my favourite substrate especially in faunariums and rubs. I haven't used it in vivariums as of yet.

[Light of Dae]

I love Coco husk. I've tried alot of different substrates and found it the best, you can mist it and it will not mold or get .. gross, You can wash it, It dries out. It is awesome for controlling the humidity. If you don't like the strings they are very easy to pick out, I fed on coco husk and didn't have any problem with it sticking to food that got drug along it. (I'd still always watch for it though.)

[RedSidedSPR]

I'm about to switch to coco husk or whatever thē hell it called cuz if I'm not mistaken it can be swallowed safely. And it still looks cool.

[angrygamer]

I went with aspen for a while, but I didn't like it and switched to coco fiber, which I like a lot better.

[Stefan-A]

Paper.

[EasternGirl]

I like carefresh a lot...but it seems to be too dusty for Cee Cee...it aggravates her breathing problems...so I don't use it much anymore. I tried Kat's method of mixing reptibark with aspen...and have that for Cee Cee's enclosure and Sadie's enclosure...they seem to be happy with that. All the other snakes have aspen right now...except for the babies...they have shredded paper substrate...which I like for them because it's safer, but it can be a pain to use with adult snakes because it sticks to them when they are wet and they drag it into the water and such. I think I am going to try the bark/aspen mix in my other tanks soon. I'm also going to buy some of the bigger aspen shavings as opposed to the shredded kind.

[Light of Dae]

I hated using aspen shavings, they were so dry and I couldn't keep the humidity up above 20. I'm actually switching back to coco husk later today from shredded paper.
It works perfect for me, my snakes love it, it's clean, can be misted with no issue. It's not dusty, it absorbs smell.
@Redsided- I'm not sure it is considered 'safe to swallow' but it is big chunks that fall off food...

[Dualll]

If you haven't already, I suggest looking into your local gardening store for the substrate before a pet store. Prices are much cheaper for much more quantity. You can get peat soil (retains moisture very well) to wood chips there.

[zendragondrew]

I use Aspen Snake Bedding because he likes to bury himself in it. I just put a big plate in with thawed out pinkies when it's feeding time and he normally doesn't move off the plate to swallow so the food doesn't stick. Only have that problem when I feed him fish since he might retract far out of the water to swallow the fish.