Subtrate Poll!

[NomadOfTheHills]

Bored and curious


What do you use most often/your favorite, and why?

I have used aspen, carefresh, reptibark, aspen pellets, paper towels, and towels.

Overall, aspen is good and cheap. Carefresh is nice, but is really dusty, and more expensive. Reptibark is very expensive, but reusuable and aestetically pleasing. Its my favorite though.

[Alerique]

here in russia the available beddings differ from what you have in us. i use a kind of filler for cat's toilets. it is made of small cylinders (0.5 cm diameter, 3-4 cm long) that are made of pressed sawdust. they seem to be extremly practical! when dry they look nice and accurate. when wet they are extremly absorbent. cylinder absorbs water and turns into the small pile of sawdust that gets dry very quiclky and falls to the bottom of the cage through the other cylinders. i can use one load of these for two weeks! I don't plan switching to any other bedding. of cause they are completely natural and don't have any smell

[NomadOfTheHills]

Thats cool, we use something similar to that for birds here, its made out of pine. I know exactly what you are talking about. Never thought of using it for bluies.

[Alerique]

mine is not made of pine and do not smell this way. seems to work fine for skink!

[Corycat]

Carefresh. They seem to enjoy it the most, though it is very dusty.

[MrChonks]

Yeah, I use carefresh, but am thinking about moving to pellets. Carefresh, although good and absorbant, has a tendency to get everywhere.

[Zach]

I really love the coconut husk.

[BigCatTattoos]

I have used aspen shavings, aspen pellets, pine shavings, paper towels, calci-sand, carefresh bedding, eco earth/vermiculite/spaghnum moss mix, for a variety of animals I have had in the past, & other stuff for ferrets & rabbits too.
I currently use aspen shavings for all my snakes, savannah monitor and blue tongue. I use cali-sand for my bearded dragons. ANd aspen pellets for my hedgehog..oh and gravel and water for my newts and turtles, LOL! Marine

[Dragontears]

I've mostly used cocofiber (SoftBed from creaturetravelers.com) and have really liked the look, smell, etc. I recently switched to aspen for the first time as a trial...I developed a severe allergy to dust this year and every time I changed the substrate with cocofiber I couldn't breathe for several days afterwards. We'll see how aspen fares.

[Lisa]

Half astro-turf, half shredded paper. Not many options available here in NSW. Apparently aspen is available in some stores but I've never seen it, and someone suggested coconut bark so I'm going to look for that.

Jubby (and now Ralphie) will begin to get fresh leaves and mulch from the garden in the next week or so for throughout spring - autumn. Not too sure for Santos but, putting fresh or real things in his tank may raise the humidity too high

[Greytmari]

I found the absolutely COOLEST substrate today at Petsmart while Shopping for Maggie a new bedding other than ASPEN. Since Tito is in Aspen, I thought I would try the Carefresh, until I saw this stuff. It was right with the Carefresh, looks kinda the same, but is packed really tight!!!! It is actually cheaper than Carefresh and promised to be completely dust free!!! I thought, yeah right. However, I got home today and put it in for Maggie and guess what, NO DUST AT ALL!!!! IT is so silky soft, it feels like cotton balls.
It is made by Kaytee and called TOTAL COMFORT> It is like carefresh but much softer and NO DUST!! A Huge 40 litre bag, (as large as the bigger, square packed Carefresh bags.) was only $13.65. Just thought I would share and I will let you know how it works. I am sold on the NO DUST part and how soft it is, and I will change it more often just for less dust.

P.S. It seems so funny to me that it is hard to find old, ordinary, ASPEN bedding in Australia but you can get a Shingleback or Blotchie for $100.00.....I personally would take the Shingleback or Blotchie, bring on the MULCH baby!!!!!

[evil pixie]

ive got a mix of carefresh and aspen and these weird kinky brown shreads of paper. usually i just have the aspen, but i have been having a difficult time finding the shaved aspen, so i mixed what i had in with some carefresh.

[Tzar]

I fall into the other categorey. I've Been using orchid bark for about a year now, come shed time the stuff is great, keeps the hummidity in real nicley. come to think of it, i use orchid bark for all my herps.

[Arkangel]

Thats cool, we use something similar to that for birds here, its made out of pine. I know exactly what you are talking about. Never thought of using it for bluies.

For those who may not know, never use pine pellets for birds. Even to line the bottom of a cage.

Pine and cedar are both toxic to all animals and birds.


I use reptibark and it seems to last forever. For some reason, most of my lizards are potty trained, and only go in one corner. (Oregon always went outside.) I simply put a piece of cardboard in the corner or place they've chosen to go, then remove it after they've gone. The reptibark stays clean.

[Greytmari]

Wow, pottytrained lizards! I am really impressed!!!

[nbelval]

I see that Aspen is the most commonly used according to the pole, but I was reading on the caresheet to not use the Aspen shavings for Rabbits, but the "other" kind ( I think it said chips/shavings?). Can someone tell me the difference? I use Aspen shavings for my hedgies and rats, and I will be using it shortly with my snakes as well (they have to get a little bigger first), so it would be lovely if I could use it when I get a BT. But I don't want to use the wrong stuff. Anyone got a good description between the two or pictures?

Thanks!

[Alerique]

the idea behind not using rabbit shavings was to have them big enough to not stick into skinks nose as it digs

[NomadOfTheHills]

Yea, sometimes aspen is shredded instead of shaved, so it looks like little sticks instea dof bigger pieces. You want to use shavings.

I would'nt use shredded for rabbots either though


I always knew not to use pine/ceadr chips, but I never thought about pine pellets being bad for birds. I read that the pellets have most of the harmful oils removed.

[Zach]

I see that Aspen is the most commonly used according to the pole, but I was reading on the caresheet to not use the Aspen shavings for Rabbits, but the "other" kind ( I think it said chips/shavings?). Can someone tell me the difference? I use Aspen shavings for my hedgies and rats, and I will be using it shortly with my snakes as well (they have to get a little bigger first), so it would be lovely if I could use it when I get a BT. But I don't want to use the wrong stuff. Anyone got a good description between the two or pictures?

Thanks!

There are actually comparative pictures of the two on the sheet you read...

[coaver]

I use paper pellets. They are VERY absorbent, just able dust free and I think they look good. I have tried shredded paper, coconut fiber and reptibark but the paper pellets are my favorite. I get them at a local pet store that sells them as small animal bedding or cat litter. It is NOT scented.