New substrate?

[gregmonsta]

I was considering giving one of these a go .... any thoughts?

FinaCARD Maxibale Plus 30 Litres 100% Paper Pellets [Finacard+30pp] - £22.00 : Finacard, Quality Animal Bedding

Earthly Enterprises Ltd

[infernalis]

I just looked at both and cannot find any sound reason not to try it.

Good luck and let us know how it works out.

[guidofatherof5]

Looks good.
My only question would be if the material had been printed on before it was recycled. Some inks can be dangerous.
Just a thought.

[gregmonsta]

The ecopetbed is cut into larger flakes from what I can find out ..... but the finacard is free postage so .... for the price of ecopetbed+postage, I could get the finacard with the kitty litter .... choices, choices.

With the finacard ... would anyone see an ingestion risk? (not that I'm not always present at feeding times)

[gregmonsta]

Looks good.
My only question would be if the material had been printed on before it was recycled. Some inks can be dangerous.
Just a thought.

Both sources claim non-recycled, cardboard factory excess possibly containing coloured card with non-toxic ink.

[infernalis]

Steve - I read the data over, the cardboard is pre-consumer... No ink.

Greg, Any substrate is a risk of ingestion.. I have lost snakes from swallowing, aspen, carefresh, coconut, etc..

I just saw a post on another forum where a snake regurgitated a sheet of paper towel.

[gregmonsta]

Steve - I read the data over, the cardboard is pre-consumer... No ink.

Greg, Any substrate is a risk of ingestion.. I have lost snakes from swallowing, aspen, carefresh, coconut, etc..

I just saw a post on another forum where a snake regurgitated a sheet of paper towel.

I thought that (after all a piece of fish was enough to badly impact my greedy Xena a couple of years back), but to err on the side of caution I'm considering trying the larger flaked package first to see how it behaves .... I might just cut up a piece of cardboard and do some testing with the size of fish I usually present to the beasties.

[Stefan-A]

Using paper pellets right now. Mold loves it and it smells. It also seems a bit dusty. It gets slightly softer in water, but it doesn't get mushy, so it's still a risk if ingested. Fortunately the pellets are heavy enough that they won't stick to food easily.

Why do all substrates have to be crap?

[gregmonsta]

I've been quite happy with carefresh so far to be honest but, like the paper pellets, it does mould quickly when it gets damp and every second batch or so it does smell quite 'stale'. It's also quite expensive as I'm paying around £20 for 60L .... this cardboard option promises approx 200+L for less.
I always present the food on the repticarpet but they do like to take food 'for a walk' every now and again.
The only problem with ingestion I've had was with aspen. I've seen smaller bits of carefresh swallowed with no ill effects.

Like I said, I'll be giving this cardboard stuff a shot and we'll see how it does. I can imagine it to be dust free (then again carefresh claims this .... and it isn't) and very easy to spotclean.

[mustang]

iv used zoomed aspen (high quality stuff NO chunks of little bark like peices in it), carefresh, and flukers colored aspen (the black color) allthough the aspen isnt as high quality(some chunks not many) its a little cheaper and its colored the color i want for the perfect tank project (thats still going on thats always running into problems) but when zoomed makes black high quality aspen ill be sure to get some ...christas is coming and checker's wishlist is on mine ,well everything but freedom :P