Simple et stupide question :

Hey !!

A friend of mine got hospitalized and I had to take his corn snake at home to take care of it.

I know my friend's feeding him every saturday so I did it that way.
This morning I found the quite ugly and smelly poop he left on a corner of the tank.
I removed it and now I'm wondering :

How often should I change the substrat that's on the floor of the tank ??

My friend isn't awake so I can't have the needed informations...

Thanks for any help you can provide me....


PS : English's not my mean language, sorry for the lake of vocabulary and mistakes I could have make ... :shrugs:

you can just spot clean the substrate if its aspen or something, just scoop out the clumps of poo. Do you know what the substrate is?

You should deep clean/disinfect the tank every 2 weeks or so. It kind of depends on how big of a snake you are caring for (how big his poop is, actually). My adult snake tanks get completely cleaned every 2 weeks. Sometimes I go a bit longer with the younger ones.

Thanks a lot....

I don't know exactly what substrate it is but it don't seems to be washable + I've seen a big pack of this at my friend's place so I assume he changes it...

I don't know the age of the snake so I'll go for a 2 weeks delay between changes...

Thanks a lot for showing your support and help newbies :wavey:

The substrate is probably something like aspen if it comes in a bag. Light colored chips of wood?

Bless you for taking care of your friend's snake. He'll be really pleased I bet And your English is great.

If it is wood chip or similar, replace the soiled areas straight away, and if you can clean the vivarium every two weeks that would be even better. Don't worry if you run out of this substrate before your friend gets home - newspaper or paper towels are just fine.

Huge thanks to everybody !!

Yes, the substract is like small pieces of wood...

I've cleaned the whole tank and changed the substract.
I'll do the same every week : I know he's feeding once a week, so when I'll see his dejections I'll clean the whole stuff....

Maybe it's a little too often, but I prefer do more than necessary than less...

Once again, thanks for helping me !!!
I've read the forum today and it's a great source of informations for someone who start from scratch like I do...