Forest bed to aspen... to forest bed.

My boy's been living on forest bed for 4.5 months now, and he just LOVES it. When it's fresh, he burrows and when it's dry he tunnels. Instead of buying a new brick, I just spot clean and have baked it once. On the 6th month I was planning on buying a new brick.

Last month I got a bp and bought a bag of aspen (nb. No matter what ANYONE tells you, do not use aspen in a glass viv if your pet requires high humidity). Needless to say, he's now on forest bark and I have a leftover bag of aspen.

I'm thinking when I dump the corns forest bed, I'll use this leftover bag in his tank... but what are the rules on cleaning aspen? 1 bag of forest bed costs me $8 and lasts me 6 months (with proper care), and there's really nothing I need to do other than spot cleaning and the occasional baking. Not to mention how much he just LOVES it. I actually feel kind of guilty giving him new bedding... lol! I really did like the aspen though... And I LOVE the way it retains heat. But I digress...

So back to aspen... how often do you change it? Is spot cleaning easy? Does it need to be a certain depth? How does it differ from the forest bed (eco earth)? If it's too much of a pain, I'll go back to forest bed, but I thought I'd ask for all your pennies first.

I like the aspen because it is less dusty than the bark products, although I have not tried the Exo Terra product. I put a couple inches in there so they can make tunnels.
Spot cleaning is tough with hatchlings, you really gotta search for the sh........uh...stuff. The aspen keeps the tanks cleaner smelling than the bark products I tried. I think I mentioned before that the bark stuff stained my hands and made me feel itchy. That's why I stopped using it. I know a few keepers that use the bark and claim to have no problems with it. To be perfectly honest, I don't like any of the substrates, so I have been known to experiment with a lot of things. Years ago I used corn cob, which I liked the best for cleaning, but it is risky and I don't use it anymore