New with care questions :)

Hello, I'm a new snake-mommy, and I just have a few basic care questions.

Right now, being on a no-job-budget(haha), I'm using newpaper as a bedding. He doesnt seem to mind it, in fact he hides in the papers more than inside his hidey-hut. I know some woods (I believe it's pines...) are bad for their skin, so I was wondering what bedding is recomended to use. I live in Arizona, so anything from Petsmart, or Petco is accessable. I read not to use some beddings because of digestion problems, so I've been hesitant about using the bed-a-beast I have left over from my hermit crabs. I was thinking about putting the bedding on half the tank, and feeding him on newspaper on the other half, but he tends to drag his feed around before he swallows it, haha, so it still makes me nervous.

Also, What type of water is recomended? I've been using bottled water, just because I had some left over, and I've been hesitant using tap water, just because of it's usual harshness. Being a captive bred snake, I dont think his system is used to harsh waters, so I've tried to make it as pure as possible, just for saftey's sake, but it can easily be switched. Should I just de-chlorify regular water?

I'm sure I'll have a few more questions as I go on! I love learning about new pets, and I ALWAYS want to knoe every tiny little thing possible! haha

Thanks!
Sav

First of all welcome to the forum. To answer your first question, most us use Aspen for bedding. There is nothing wrong with using newspaper or paper towels, mind you. If you are looking for a more asthetically pleasing substrate though, use Aspen. It is always recommended to feed your snake in a seperate tank/tuberware/dixie cup though. You don't want him swallowing any of that aspen. You mentioned doing half/half (newspaper/aspen) and feeding him on the newspaper. The problem I see with that is that you can't control your snakes behavior. Once you give him his meal, you won't be able to stop him from dragging it over to the aspen and enjoying his lunch. Potentially, he could still ingest some aspen.

As for the water question, as long as your tap water isn't to hard, I would think that would be ok to use. I have a filter on my faucet, so I use the filtered water. Bottle water would also work. The way I see it, snakes in the wild drink water off the ground and out of lakes/rivers that aren't 100% clean, so tap water shouldn't kill them. I hope this helps.

The aroma from Pine and Ceder is bad for snakes. A lot of keepers her just use Aspen but it is OK to just use paper towels or news paper. Bed-A-beast is fine for them but do not use the same stuff you Had your crabs on because they could of had some mites or something similar. If you keep them on any lose substrate( wood chip, Bed-A-Beast reptibark) i would feed in a separate feeding container. you can just use a 6qt steralite container, they cost about $1.29.

Howdy and welcome!
I have tried different acceptable substrates, including Carefresh Ultra, Reptibark, paper towels, newsprint, etc., and have come to the conclusion that aspen is by far the best. They really hold good tunnels for them to burrow and the snakes seem to love it. Under the big water bowls of my adult corn and my garter snake, I put down newsprint or paper towels, and then I put aspen on the other half of the tank.

The tap water here leaves some kind of minerals/lime? behind. Its terrible. Of course when I lived in Mississippi the water went from yellow to brown depending on the area, so that was worse. I don't want to drink tap myself, so I get regular bottled water for my snakes. Its cheap, and they don't use much water, so its not a big splurge, but could potentially help with health and longevity. Chlorine is bad for them, so I have a small bottle of reptile water conditioner around for when I've been out of the bottled water.

I feed all of my corn snakes in a seperate container. When I feed my garter mice, I feed him in his terrarium, by his water bowl where there is no aspen. I supervise him of course. He doesn't move anywhere with it, just swallows it down (corns are different about that!). He also gets live guppies in his water bowl now and then for fishing fun.

Tell us about your set up and your snake! :cheers:

BTW, I'm on a tight budget myself, so I've used a lot of newsprint/papertowels before. I've found out that a bag of aspen goes a long way, and the spot cleaning is easy.

If your in Phoenix, then i wouldnt give him any tap water. Its got alot of chlorine and its pretty hard.

I have been using tap water for all my reptiles for years and never had a problem.

Water in some places tastes good and doesn't have as many problems as water in other areas. I had water straight from the tap in Chicago and Virginia, that was delicious and clear. I also see things swimming in my water here in central Texas, and it tastes like limestone and leaves a lot of mineral deposits. I've lived in, and visited, a lot of different places, and the quality of tap water varies greatly.

Thanks for all the replies! Right now, my tank is a little bare. I have newspaper on the bottom, a hidey hut, a feeding dish, and a water bowl. I have a thermometer in there, and I'm working on getting a humidity gauge for him.

The bed a beast that I have left over hasnt been used. It's still in block form. I'm just not 100% sure what it's made of, so I havent used it. Maybe I'll just put a tiny bit in there and see how he reacts to it. I dont think he's ever had "real" bedding before, so he's quite attached to his newpapers, haha.

I dont really drink the tap water here, myself, so I have an issue giving it to my pets. Even my dog usually gets nice, filtered water. The tap here is pretty hard, so I preffer bottled water, so I'll just keep using that.

Is there anything else, that as a good snake-owner, I should have? I have some cholla, but wasnt sure if he could play with that? I'm thinking about getting him some climby toys, since I have a lid he cant get out of, but I'm not sure what. He's a pretty active little guy, so I think he'd enoy some toys.

You could just get some branches from the yard. That is what I did. You should bake them to get rid of any germs but I can not remember the correct temperature or length of time. Hopefully somebody will respond with that info.

If we had any trees worth de-branching, I would. haha. My dad's basically killed our yard, thinking he was helping it. There are some pretty cool looking plastic tree/hidey hut things at Petsmart. I might invest in one once I get another job.

One more quick question... How long will it take them to get to their full size?

They never stop growing but after about 2-4 year it slows down a lot. Any more question?

Thank makes sense... Thanks.

Yeah, actually. While I'm here, I might as well ask. I'm using Newspaper for bedding right now, but I'm just laying down full sheets... Thicker on the heater side, and thinner on the cooler side. Would it be wise to shred the newspaper so he has something to bury into? He seems to like to lay between the sheets, that's where he ALWAYS is, but I thought if I gave him more options, he'd have more fun with it.

Savvy19 said:

Would it be wise to shred the newspaper so he has something to bury into?

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Yes I would think so.

I have some bed-a-beast that I'm going to try on half the tank to see how he reacts to it.

I'll shred some paper tonight and see how he likes that, too.

just be carefull, make sure the shreded newpaper does not have sharp edges. i have used eco- earth in the past and it works fine. there is nothing to worrie about with it.

Of course make sure your bed-a-beast is not damp.

Yeah, The bed-a-beast directions say to dry it completely, so that's what I've done in the past.

I'd suggest sredding the paper as well. I use the aspen stuff from petsmart and i bought a huge bag for 7 dollars and didnt even use 1/10th of it(10g tank), so it should last quite a long time. Mine is always burrowed under the aspen to where i cant even see him. I had to check the tank a couple times because i really thought he got out! So i think its safe to assume they like to hide in the substrate, sometimes even more than the actual hides.

As far as the water here in az... We have some of the hardest water in the nation and it is heavily chlorified and it also has floride in it.( if your not aware, foride is a form of rat poison) so i really would not suggest using it for any of your pets.