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aspen snake bedding vs other aspen

skullmaster

skullmaster

as seen on you tube
hi I have used aspen snake bedding for a long time but and I can't seem to find any right now ...
but ive seen a huge bag of aspen stuff for like rabbits or hamsters or whatever... I know its more like chunks rather than shreded, but it is still aspen,... has any one used it for snakes?
can they still burrow in it ?
is it still easy to clean?
 
You really have to be careful with what kind of aspen you put into your snake's tank..Snakes can't be on anything made from pine cause of the oils in it can have a bad effect on them..I even heard cedar isn't good to use but I haven't heard much on that..If you can't find aspen shredded newspaper is always a good temorary replacement or papertowels..There's also "Retpi-bark" which I'm sure they sell at any local petsmart or petco..
 
Hmm Aspen is aspen but without a picture its hard to tell you how easy it will be to clean but you should be able to use common sense to some extent to figure out if they will burrow easily into it and suhc.
 
Maize411 said:
You really have to be careful with what kind of aspen you put into your snake's tank..Snakes can't be on anything made from pine cause of the oils in it can have a bad effect on them..I even heard cedar isn't good to use but I haven't heard much on that..If you can't find aspen shredded newspaper is always a good temorary replacement or papertowels..There's also "Retpi-bark" which I'm sure they sell at any local petsmart or petco..
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As he said the stuff he is looking at is still aspen just aspen in more of a chip form then a shredded form.
 
different aspen can be made of different materials and different wood can be used..so you have to be careful
 
From dictionary.com:
Aspens are trees of the willow family and comprise a section of the poplar genus, Populus sect. Populus. There are six species in the section, one of them atypical, and one hybrid:

* Populus adenopoda: Chinese Aspen (China, south of P. tremula)
* Populus sieboldii: Japanese Aspen (Japan)
* Populus alba: White Poplar (northwest Africa, southern Europe, east to central Asia)
* Populus × canescens: Grey Poplar (hybrid P. alba × P. tremula)
* Populus tremula: Common, Swedish, Trembling or Eurasian Aspen (northern Europe & Asia)
* Populus tremuloides: Quaking, Trembling or American Aspen (northern & western North America)

As you can see aspen is not pine nor is it cedar and any bedding marked aspen is neither of thoose which as you stated are toxic to snakes so as long as you are using bedding that is "aspen" you are fine.
 
maize i think you are confused... I know snakes cant have pine or ceader ... thats not what i am asking here... I just wanted to know if anyone has tried this differntly "shaped" aspen for snakes, not a differnt "type of wood"
 
I use the more course shavings for my larger snakes
and the fine shred for smaller ones, haven't had a prob yet.
 
Maize- There's no such thing as different types of wood being in aspen.

I get my aspen in bulk. Basically, whatevers cheap when I'm buying it. Aspen is aspen. Size doesn't really seem to affect the snakes or my ability to clean it. :shrugs:
 
My mistake...I've always thought that aspen comes in different types of wood..I looked it up tonight and it turns out like you all have stated..aspen is aspen shavings..pine is pine shavings...etc..etc...I thought they were all the same and you had to read what kind you are buying..I do apologize..
 
I've seen a lot of generic 'pet bedding' shavings here, that don't even have what wood they're from in the fine print, so double-checking the label is probably not a bad idea at all.
 
diamondlil said:
I've seen a lot of generic 'pet bedding' shavings here, that don't even have what wood they're from in the fine print, so double-checking the label is probably not a bad idea at all.
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Valid point. The extra hassle of checking doesn't hurt anything aside from taking a few minutes. If it makes anyone more comfortable, by all means, please keep checking.
 
I like the Kaytee huge bag of bigger shavings a lot better than the finer Snake Aspen. I think the Snake Aspen holds together better for tunneling, and isn't as fluffy, which makes it harder for me to sift through and find the snakes.
 
I have used the larger size of aspen chips, they are the same stuff :) Some brands have a fair amount of dust (undesirable) some brands are not dusty at all.
 
I normally use the Kaytee brand aspen shavings or Harlan shredded aspen which is much finer. I prefer the Kaytee but the Harlan used to be a little cheaper.

I would never use the tiny bags sold specifically for reptiles, as it is ridiculously expensive. Why pay literally 8 to 10 times as much for basically the same product?
 
i know ezactly what your talkin about and my snakes seem to love it just as much as the shredded kind, and it lets them burrow just as easy and my snake are still perfectly healthy
 
I'm not condoning it's usage, but once upon a time Pine was the standard bedding used. ;) I still see some pics every now and then where the bedding looks like it may be pine (kinda "softer" than aspen if that makes sense?). Not sure what that means to the current discussion . . . :shrugs:

Aspen is aspen is aspen. It's better than pine due to the lower amount of sap (and therefore potential toxins) from what I understand. (Pine would therefore be better than cedar!) I have gotten some of the larger """shredded""" aspen from Sunseed which had a really strong petroleum like smell to it which I refuse to use ever again. I currently use the large bales of Kaytee Aspen shavings.

D80
 
Drizzt80 said:
I'm not condoning it's usage, but once upon a time Pine was the standard bedding used. ;) I still see some pics every now and then where the bedding looks like it may be pine (kinda "softer" than aspen if that makes sense?). Not sure what that means to the current discussion . . . :shrugs:
Click to expand...

Yep, I can remember a time some years ago when that was all I used as aspen wasn't the easiest to find.

Now, however, I use aspen and for many of my snakes I use the aspen sani-chips but I have used the shredded as well. My pythons and boas still get newspaper.
 
I couldn't find aspen in the snake area last time I was in need (prior planning not being one of my strong suits), so I grabbed a bale labled "100% aspen" over by the rodentia area. Smells, looks feels like aspen, just a little less uniformly chunky, with more bark showing up. I will say that it is FAR more dusty than "snake aspen". Before the next time I use it, I'm going outside on a breezy day and dump it out into an empty snake bin to let the dust blow away.
 
At Petco, the 8qt bag of shredded snake aspen is 9 bucks. the 4cu. ft. bag of aspen shavings in the rodent section is only 13 bucks. and all my snakes burrow in it just fine. It's a little dustier, but not as dusty as Reptibark.
 
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