Substrate Info

[Tormoni]

Hey all,

When I purchased my very first corns at the pet shop, the salesman convinced me that the best stuff to use was this stuff called Calci-Sand by T-Rex. After posting my first pictures on this forum of my new friends in their calci-sand, the other forum members let me have it!!

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20169

I didn't realize, or belive, how bad this stuff was... I even wrote to the makers of T-Rex, and I wanted to post the reply I got from them, just in case there are other newbies out there that may have been duped into purchasing this SUPER-EXPENSIVE crap.

The particle size of Calci-Sand is such that, if undigested, it should simply pass through, even a hatchling Corn snake, if accidentally or incidentally ingested. However snake's digestion is somewhat more powerful, i.e. more acidic, than that of lizards and I would expect your Corn snakes to fully digest Calci-Sand, if it is incidentally ingested, in the same way as they fully digest the skeleton of their prey, which is minerally similar.

Calci-Sand is hydroscopic (it has a drying effect), that can cause baby Corn snakes to have difficulty shedding their skins if they are not provided with a moist hiding place. So it must be used with caution for small snakes, and those that prefer a moist habitat. Calci-sand is principally used as a desert substrate, which is not typical for Corn snakes.

The best substrates for snakes are those that compact and combine to form a firm mat that the snakes can move across comfortably. These include Aspen, twice milled Cypress Mulch and our new Desert Snow, which is a bleached hardwood substrate.

Best regards,

Jon Coote, Director of research & Development, T-Rex Products Inc.

Just so everyone knows, I have switched to Aspen, which is SO much cheaper and the stuff seems to last forever! I think it looks better anyways... Thanks again to everyone that responded to my first post... :cheers:

 

[CAV]

I applaud their honesty. I do use their sand for some of my lizards and have never had a problem.

 

[Joejr14]

Not sure how in the world I missed that post.

You were pretty adament about using sand, eh? It's really too bad that reptile product makers don't include a list of snake species that can be kept on sand like substrates.

Either way, aspen is a much better choice.

I will say this, and in no way am I attacking, but the people who post here are normally pretty experienced and are only trying to help---when 15 people tell you something is a bad idea, I'd go along with that instead of arguing and sticking with the original thought. Pet stores are notoriously poor at giving horrible husbandry advice for snakes.

 

[MegF.]

I think it's good to get feedback from the makers of things like that though. It just helps to add to the reasons that we don't use it. The makers of the Calci-sand could very well have said it was great for corns, but they were honest enough to give their opinion that it was less than ideal. I applaud their honesty as well.

 

[A_Mc]

I think it's great how honest they were in their reply....When I first started keeping sand boas, I used calci-sand for them..(I was pretty ignorant:sandboa=sand substrate :dunce: I'm wiser now..) I hated the stuff...It caused really bad sheds, stuck to everything and was impossible to keep clean. I don't have any herps with legs, but I have seen it in use with lizards, and they seem to do great on it.
:-offtopic A while ago, I e-mailed T-Rex asking where they had their display cages made, as I was interested in one I had seen at a pet store. They replied within an hour and were very helpful.... :-offtopic