Substrate

[Lori P]

I can't wait to see!!!!!

Is it done yet??

How 'bout now?????

[Garter_Gertie]

No! Ittiz NOT done, silly! Ittiz sitting here with the bags in the 20 gal L. You seem to have about as much patience as I do - ZIP!

I've got six or so weeks before Kenabec gets here. And I don't have a camera (the one at work, the woman took it off our For Sale site. But I remember her name and am going to contact her to see if she still has it. That was a different thread - the camera.)

I'm going to mess/screw around with substrate stuff. I'd LOVE to put some sand in there - Hoggies like sand. But everyone says ittiz bad. But how can that be when they're digging in it out in the wild? (Color me stupid.)

I need to still get big rocks, branches/stumps, oak leaves and bake. I'm not really worried about wet/compaction as I'm figuring I'll be mixing up a bunch o'this stuff - since it all comes in bags - and will have it on hand. When Kenabec and The Garters whizz/poop... I intend to just scoop it up with a kitty litter-thingy. Only thing is is the rocks on the bottom... Maybe I should omit those? Whatchew think?

Oh! I also need to get some plants to plant. Somewhere I saved a list of non-posineous (did I spell that rite?) plants that will work.

So, no, cutie! Ittiz NOT finished.

[jitami]

It sounds very nice Gertie! My mother in law set up a tarantula viv for us once and presented it with Itsy(what else does a 4 year old name a spider?) for my son's birthday. She layered the substrate and it looked very nice. I thought of doing the same for Sly and did something similar for a week or so until I realized he had mites. I switched him to paper towel then and haven't gone back to any kind of substrate. The paper towel is just so easy. But I really do love the look of a more natural substrate and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Garter_Gertie]

Thanks, Tami! NOT that *my* substrate is going to stay in any kind'a layered order like what your mom's did, but... I think it will work out. Just gotta get the perportions (did I spell that rite?) correct that pleases me but is good for Kenabec/The Garters. Like I'd like a lot of peat moss as it looks like soil. But no can do "a lot." Too fine and too compactible.

I don't know. Guess we'll see!

[crzy_kevo]

i started using a new substrate the other day i was using grass but i noticed behind my GF's mom's shed there was some old wood being decomposed by the lovely little critters that do that so i scooped up a bunch of it baked it till dry and i find it works well its got chunks of wood and some powedered wood(i guess u can call it that) too so i like it and george doesnt seem to mind either

[Garter_Gertie]

That would be like wood chips, no? Great find! I'd think George would like anything natural you give him.

[Spiritwolf]

The breeder I got my red-sided garters from (and who I got Feisty from), recommended Carefresh small animal bedding as a substrate that is cheap, absorbent, soft, and safe for the snakes. So I tried it and I love it and the snakes love it too. WalMart makes a similar product called CritterCare which is a bit cheaper than Carefresh. These products are sold in the area of the store for rodent and small animal bedding, not in the reptile product area.

I love Carefresh/CritterCare. It isn't decorative, but it's soft, absorbent, cheap, safe, and functional. It is like small wads of compressed paper. Carefresh comes in different colors as well as plain undyed, I only use the plain undyed version (which has always been cheaper than the fancy dyed stuff every place where I've bought Carefresh!).

I put about 2 inches depth of Carefresh in the snakes enclosures and they love tunneling all around through it. I also put Carefresh in their den boxes.

There are no scents in plain Carefresh or in CritterCare, no dyes, no sharp edges, etc. I feed the snakes in separate boxes without substrate in them, but if feeding in an enclosure with substrate, I think Carefresh is much safer than any of the wood or ground hull, etc, type of substrates because Carefresh is mostly in pieces large enough that they cannot stick all over food and be ingested.

Carefresh isn't a fancy looking substrate but the snakes love it and it's inexpensive compared to the wood/nut/etc based reptile beddings and it's soft, absorbent, and safe!

[anji1971]

I switched to Carefresh in the last couple months, and I agree........it's great stuff, for all the reasons already mentioned!

[crzy_kevo]

ya its like easily broken wood chips and its absorbant too

[drache]

I don't know what you guys pay for carefresh, but here it's not cheap, or at least not cheap enough to use in quantity