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Beech Chips
- Thread starter A_Mc
- Start date
A_Mc
I like shiny things.....
I don't seem to have any trouble finding it overseas....there are tons of places that sell it in the UK...Have run through search engine after search engine to no avail....None of the local pet stores have it, or have heard of it. :shrugs: I guess it's back to paper towels for now. I have really gotten away from aspen...it's too dusty..I don't like my 'children' breathing the stuff....
here i dont know if this is wat u want but it said beech sustate and its in i think u.k http://www.all4reptiles.co.uk/acatalog/reptiles_substrates.html
:cheers:
:cheers:
pcar
PCar's Reptiles
If the aspen that you use is too dusty, then you just need to switch brands. there are many different brands that you can get a hold of. L&M is dust free. this is what I use now...I have had some that are so dusty it made me sneeze just to walk past the bag when I had it. as soon as I found that out, I started using it on my feeder colonies and got the L&M brand.
the L&M brand is in a compressed pack, and the lable is red. hope this helps out.
the L&M brand is in a compressed pack, and the lable is red. hope this helps out.
princess
Cornaholic
snakelady said:
OH MY GOD...OK people are going to jump down my throut for being harsh to you but you should NEVER, EVER, EVER tell people that it's safe for their snake to ingest barkchips. The reptile place near me had someone bring in a CaliKing with reptibark impaction from being fed live mice in it's terrarium. It would lunge at the mouse and eat a little bark inthe process and ended up impacted after a few months. Yes snakes in the wild will eat a little dirt with their food, but we don't want to replicate all their natural environmental factors, like predators, cold snaps, parasites. :twoguns:
A_Mc
I like shiny things.....
I feed all of my snakes (40+) out of their 'homes' in seperate empty enclosures, so ingestion of substrate is not possible (feeding day takes about 5 hours to complete). I have seen reptibark, and I appreciate your advice--snakelady--but it may be cost prohibitive for all of my animals?? I really like the substrate that came with some of my animals from Home Grown Herps--I e-mailed Jim, and he told me that it's called Sani-Chips, so if I can't locate beech, I will try to find some of this. It is aspen that has had all of the dust removed and is in tiny chips..... http://www.pjmurphy.net/sanichips/
Thanks for replying!! :cheers:
Thanks for replying!! :cheers:
princess
Cornaholic
Hi Angelina,
I also feed in a specific tub ...well it's grown to 3 tubs so I can feed a few simultaneously to save time -and they get fed on paper towel. I'm glad you're pre-aware of the risks of substrate ingestion and calculate your risks rather than believe what's told to you by anyone who types what they want...my little rant...I'm over it now...phew!!!
I also feed in a specific tub ...well it's grown to 3 tubs so I can feed a few simultaneously to save time -and they get fed on paper towel. I'm glad you're pre-aware of the risks of substrate ingestion and calculate your risks rather than believe what's told to you by anyone who types what they want...my little rant...I'm over it now...phew!!!
A_Mc
I like shiny things.....
No worries, Princess--Maybe snakelady was just trying to say that the reptibark is non-toxic if swallowed?? I don't know. :shrugs: Either way, it's a non-issue for me, but I understand where you are coming from. I am aware that non-toxic (some people assume edible when they read it) can still cause impaction problems, and I DON'T feel 'up to' giving my little beauties snake sized enemas.. :eek1: LOL
KRIZ
New member
Beech Rules
hi princess, i have recently gone back to beech chips, and it is GREAT! the best thing is that every pet store around stocks it and really cheaply. I love it soo much i even made a thread about it.
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20304&highlight=alternative+aspen
mua ha ha ha ha lol
soz A mc, just rubbing it in, lol
are there any reptile shows around where you live, you should be ablle to find some at the next one you attend.
he he he, normally everything herp related is USA only, and costs LOADs to get shipped over, finally, one thing on this side of the pond
hi princess, i have recently gone back to beech chips, and it is GREAT! the best thing is that every pet store around stocks it and really cheaply. I love it soo much i even made a thread about it.
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20304&highlight=alternative+aspen
mua ha ha ha ha lol
soz A mc, just rubbing it in, lolare there any reptile shows around where you live, you should be ablle to find some at the next one you attend.
he he he, normally everything herp related is USA only, and costs LOADs to get shipped over, finally, one thing on this side of the pond
A_Mc
I like shiny things.....
:cheers: Kriz!! LOL
OK OK OK...I guess I'll have to wait for my sis-in-law in Essex to bring some across the pond when she comes on holiday...I can see me asking her to share her suitcase with a few bags of wood chips--she'll think I'm off my rocker. She'll understand when she has to sleep in the spare room (the snake room at the moment) with 47+ pairs of eyes looking at her.... :sidestep:
I'm sure that I will be able to find it at shows, I just wasn't looking the last time I went....
OK OK OK...I guess I'll have to wait for my sis-in-law in Essex to bring some across the pond when she comes on holiday...I can see me asking her to share her suitcase with a few bags of wood chips--she'll think I'm off my rocker. She'll understand when she has to sleep in the spare room (the snake room at the moment) with 47+ pairs of eyes looking at her.... :sidestep:
I'm sure that I will be able to find it at shows, I just wasn't looking the last time I went....
MightyNutteR
New member
Sorry to change the subject in a way
ever since i changed my substrate to beech chips, my snake hasn't come out from hiding, staying in the cool area and not moving around at all :shrugs:
ever since i changed my substrate to beech chips, my snake hasn't come out from hiding, staying in the cool area and not moving around at all :shrugs:
Taceas
USW = UB313
Wierd that you guys like the L&M brand of Aspen, I ordered it from online cause there isn't any place that sells it locally, and I hated it. It wasn't soft like I think shavings should be, it was more like wood splinters and quite dusty.
Right now I'm using Kaytee Aspen, as it's cheaper and I can save on shipping and you just have to look through the giant compressed bags at the shaving quality. Some will be really dusty, but most I've had have been just fine. Although I did get one bag one time that I had serious doubts that it was aspen in there. It looked and smelled like spruce chips, not to mention the chips were greasy feeling. Needless to say I used that as chicken bedding.
Reptibark I wouldn't recommend for corns. I tried it once, and it was so dusty it was clogging their nostrils, and I could just imagine what else it was doing. And I even rinsed/drained/baked it before adding it to their vivs. There's just something about fir bark that makes it powdery. Although I did get a similar product from ESU for my BP tank that wasn't dusty at all, and even came moist in a bag. Not dry and powdery like Reptibark is.
As for beech chips, try contacting a lumber company and see if they have any ideas. If I remember right from college biology class, beech is a predominant tree in northern Europe, hence why its used so frequently over there.
Another source you may look at is orchards...they put wood chips under their trees to keep grasses and weeds down and most use hardwood chips, not conifer which would degrade faster.
And yet another source would be horse bedding materials. They too use hardwoods, as they stand up better to a heavy animal tromping round. You may call up some local stables and see what they use as bedding and if they know of any place to locate beech chips.
Me, I don't think I could consciously use beech chips. Around here they're such a slow growing tree, and it takes eons for one to get big enough to be valuable to loggers. Maybe in Europe they can grow fast enough to replenish themselves. But they don't call them the 'Queen of the Forest' for nothing (Oak being the 'King of the Forest').
Aspen is much more environmentally friendly, as aspen grows like weeds out in the mountainous western US and it can replenish itself faster than most other softwoods.
Unless you want to use paper towel or newspaper, no other wood shaving type of material is going to be completely free of dust/powder. Them's just the apples of wood products. =)
Right now I'm using Kaytee Aspen, as it's cheaper and I can save on shipping and you just have to look through the giant compressed bags at the shaving quality. Some will be really dusty, but most I've had have been just fine. Although I did get one bag one time that I had serious doubts that it was aspen in there. It looked and smelled like spruce chips, not to mention the chips were greasy feeling. Needless to say I used that as chicken bedding.
Reptibark I wouldn't recommend for corns. I tried it once, and it was so dusty it was clogging their nostrils, and I could just imagine what else it was doing. And I even rinsed/drained/baked it before adding it to their vivs. There's just something about fir bark that makes it powdery. Although I did get a similar product from ESU for my BP tank that wasn't dusty at all, and even came moist in a bag. Not dry and powdery like Reptibark is.
As for beech chips, try contacting a lumber company and see if they have any ideas. If I remember right from college biology class, beech is a predominant tree in northern Europe, hence why its used so frequently over there.
Another source you may look at is orchards...they put wood chips under their trees to keep grasses and weeds down and most use hardwood chips, not conifer which would degrade faster.
And yet another source would be horse bedding materials. They too use hardwoods, as they stand up better to a heavy animal tromping round. You may call up some local stables and see what they use as bedding and if they know of any place to locate beech chips.
Me, I don't think I could consciously use beech chips. Around here they're such a slow growing tree, and it takes eons for one to get big enough to be valuable to loggers. Maybe in Europe they can grow fast enough to replenish themselves. But they don't call them the 'Queen of the Forest' for nothing (Oak being the 'King of the Forest').
Aspen is much more environmentally friendly, as aspen grows like weeds out in the mountainous western US and it can replenish itself faster than most other softwoods.
Unless you want to use paper towel or newspaper, no other wood shaving type of material is going to be completely free of dust/powder. Them's just the apples of wood products. =)