Substrate

Hi iv'e been keeping corn snakes for about a month now and i had 2 at the bening on just a sand bedding for bird cages and one died and the pet shop said it died because it chocked on the sand. Since then i have been using corn based granuels so its safe for them to swollow but its becoming to costly. What is the cheapest and safest substrate to use bar carpet and paper and cardboard. :cheers: Will

Aspen shavings...

Aspen, newapaper and lots of others my favourite is beech chips. I don't think what you are using now is safe either get something else ASAP.

i uese reptibark and my corns love it

Pine shavings.

I like aspen, but some use newspaper or cypress. I would love to experiment with sod or bioactive substrates if I had different, better ventilated cages.

When I used to use pine many years ago, some of my older snakes used to hold their mouths slightly open. I feel that long term use of pine may cause some scarring of the respiratory tract in some sensitive animals, although short term use is probably OK (but I recommend against it). I read about a study in Latvia many years ago that even found respiratory problems with rodents kept on pine. Probably depends partly on how much ventilation there is. And of course, avoid cedar or anything that has a strong, aromatic, resinous type odor to it. I would also avoid sand.

You can get aspen in the UK .... it's just not quite so easy to find as it is in the US ... I use it.

It works out cheaper than repti-bark (which I used for over ten years before switching to aspen).

Beech chips are also easy to get in the UK and are also fine.

paper towels. or carefresh.

thanks for your help i got some beech chips today