Red Cedar as substrate for snakes.

[Millinex]

Not really 100% pertaining to garters as snakes in general. I believe a couple years ago I read that red cedar (like the giant bags from walmart) is toxic to snakes. How toxic is it and is it only if ingested? I have a very big bag of it sitting around and I'm building a snake enclosure soon and would love to use it. Smells and looks great and is extremely cheap. If it is only if ingested seems much safer.

I'd like to switch both my garter and my bull to it if it turns out safe.

Thanks

[drache]

no idea . . .
but somebody else probably does

[ssssnakeluvr]

fumes from cedar are toxic to them...thats why they made cedar chests to store clothes in, keeps out cloth eating moths

[Millinex]

It just smells so damn good! Lol oh well I'll stick with bark ;*O

[PitGirl89]

its the phenol oils in the cedar as someone mentioned, its not only toxic to snakes but also to just about every animal that you could keep on shavings. They shouldn't even be sold, I know that they create respiratory problems for rodents, I'm not sure if the same results occur to snakes.

[bsol]

I know its bad for snakes.
There are so many other substrate options out there! I wouldnt tempt fate...

[mustang]

it aint good...but your right about one thing...it does smell good

[Millinex]

I know its bad for snakes.
There are so many other substrate options out there! I wouldnt tempt fate...

Not a fan of the majority of substrates most people use. I've always hated newspaper/paper towel/that weird fluffy stuff from petco. It was either red cedar or back to bark lol ;)

[drache]

put the cedar in your closet - it makes the clothes smell great and the moths hate it

[ssssnakeluvr]

Not a fan of the majority of substrates most people use. I've always hated newspaper/paper towel/that weird fluffy stuff from petco. It was either red cedar or back to bark lol ;)
that weird fluffy stuff is Carefresh....very good stuff, keeps smell down, easy to clean up...just a little expensive

[PitGirl89]

that weird fluffy stuff is Carefresh....very good stuff, keeps smell down, easy to clean up...just a little expensive

Does it really keep the smell down? When I was younger we had a hedgehog and we used Carefresh bedding and I found that it absorbed everything quicker making the smells linger.

[Millinex]

I've had mixed experiences. With rodents, it is terrible, with snakes it does great, it just costs an arm and a leg. It would have cost me a small fortune when I housed my garters in a 155g custom aquarium.

[ssssnakeluvr]

never had a problem with my snakes smelling bad....rodents have normal urine....that will soak in and smell, snake feces is different....

[PitGirl89]

I imagine that snake feces are similar to that of my bearded dragon, which at times... doesn't exactly smell like roses lol.. i'm guessing the consistency of the two are similar, which would make sense as to why carefresh could work, you could just scoop it out.

[DrKate]

I know we've pretty much put the cedar thing to rest, but I ran across this article while looking up something else today, so I thought I'd post it in case anyone was still skeptical...

AFRMA - Softwood Bedding (http://www.afrma.org/rminfo2a.htm)

[gelshark]

what about aspen?

[Zephyr]

what about aspen?
Aspen is fine.