Substrates

I'm looking for a more natural substrate, rather than my paper in my tank. I've had my snake for 1 week now and he defacated once, so it was easy to clean. the question is, which substrate is available to me with ease to clean and naturally looking ?

Alot of people including me will say Aspen... its nice easy to clean and cheap. Plus the snake burrow in it

Aspen--natural looking, available at petsores, easy to spot clean, inexpensive, and safe.

Try a search for substrate, because there are a lot of topics already with good info about what you are asking.

Hands down, Aspen is my choice as well. Looks good, easy to clean, helps a lot with odors. Not really a hard choice here.

I'll make the fourth person recommending aspen. Looks good, easy to clean, absorbant, not harmful in any way, cheap, readily avaliable, helps remove/subdue odors...good stuff all round.

I'll jump on as well ; Aspen. Aspen looks fabulous and the snakes love it. In my corn's tank, the Aspen is full of little tunnels my corn has made digging through it. It's also not too expensive, and easy to get hold of; even over here, where the reptile hobby is still relatively small, Aspen is easy to buy. I know of at least two stores within five miles of me which stock Aspen.

I used aspen at first but it reminded me to much of a rodent cage so now I use a mix of eco earth and aspen. Well at first it was a layer of eco earth and then aspen but Steve has since mixed it all up from his sudden interest in burrowing. He seems to burrow more with the mix than he ever did with just aspen. I think its more a prefrence of the snake and the parent as to what to use. Most options are good choices so I say experiment and see what you like. I liked aspen but like I said it seemed like a rat should be living in it and not a snake. And I didnt even use it when I had my rats, they got pelleted rabbit food, super absorbent and no smell when regularly spot cleaned.

HI. Is it best to place the snake in a separate feeding vessel with aspen or will they care not to injest little pieces when feeding?

Anytime you use a particulate substrate (including aspen) it's a good idea to put the snake in a seperate container. Not to say you can't feed in the tank and get by, but you eliminate the risk of impaction by feeding in a bare container. Also easier to clean.