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Real Leaves for Substrate

Azul/Corazon

Azul/Corazon

New member
Can I use real leaves for my corn/rat snakes viv? Is there anything I could do to kill anything on the leaves but wouldnt ruin the leaves right away, such as boil them? Also if I can, are there any kind of leaves to avoid from certain trees?
 
i wouldnt use natural leaves. Because it can and probably will harbor mites, bugs, eggs, etc. and if you boil the leaves they will get mooshy and nasty. And most woods are bad for corns so how do you know the leaves arent going to affect your corn!? yes- they can climb in and on them in the wild but there is 100% open space and arent confined to laying on the leaves weather they like it or not. If you want the look of leaves, get the silk and fake leaves from a store instead.
 
Since the purpose of substrate is to be A. easy to clean (absorbant or disposable or easy to wipe off) the leaves don't really fit. B. promote burrowing- the leaves would do that, but from a cleaning aspect, leaves wouldn't be a practical substrate. I'm not super worried about the bug factor and have used big sturdy pretty loquat and sycamore leaves for decoration, but since I switched to aspen, I don't any more.
 
Cleaning out the cage and such doesnt bother me, I actually tend to enjoy doing so and re-arranging things. lol So I know I would have to clean them out more often. Im using shredded paper right now so I just toss that out when I clean and put new in. Would be the same with leaves, right?
 
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