I personally use and love cypress mulch. Just curious what everybody thinks the best substrate is for ball pythons?

I use cypress as well...I love it - Holds humidity great and if you get the good stuff it won't mold...

From what I have heard, cypress mulch is the best. I personally use unprinted newspaper (newsprint). It is quick / easy to clean.

From what I have heard, cypress mulch is the best. I personally use unprinted newspaper (newsprint). It is quick / easy to clean.

In a perfect world I'd say unprinted newspaper is the better substrate of the two. Cypress makes keeping a larger number of snakes easier for me. Spot cleaning saves so much time.

I've found Sanichips to be my favorite substrate -- it's not as dusty as the shredded aspen and it vacuums up easier.

I like cypress as well but don't like that my snakes come out of their tub looking dirty. I've also had problems getting it in my area - least the clean bug free type.

For tank set ups I do like Reptibark.

I hate newspaper but have been using cage liner in my hatchling tubs this season and find that it works a little better -- but I'm still change out cages pretty much every day -- but it's better than paper towels. I prefer a substrate that will filter the fluids away from my snake and will allow me to spot clean -- the paper substrates just don't do that.

unprinted newspaper works best for me!

My vote goes to news paper as well......not that my vote is worth much:D

I use newspaper/paper towles for my snakes and when I eat as I am Asian. We use newspaper when we dinner. Thats how Asians do it. lol.
Easy to clean up.

I like cypress too as it keeps humidity well, but I cant tell where they went pee pee at when its soaked and plus I have carpet in my room and it gets everywhere when I pull my snakes out.

I'm a newspaper kind of guy myself. I use a humid hide with my Blood Python and have considered doing the same with the BPs tho.

I have heard that not all Cypress is equal tho. From what I understand , some companies are mixing 25-50% shredded cedar into their mix now. I haven't as yet found out what companies tho.

I use Diamond Soft for both my snakes and my rats. I like this substrate because is soaks up pee very well and keeps any smell down. It makes it very easy to spot clean and is fairly inexpensive. If it wasn't for the rats, 3 Bags would probably last me a whole year and that would only cost 90$. Unfortunately I have 28 rats to house and between the snakes/rats 3 bags will last me 2 months.

I use white paper towels from hatchling up to 300 grams and then they go on Aspen. Spot cleaning is done daily and weekly tub clean and disinfect and new aspen. I dont know how breeders with 1000 animal collections get it all done? Can you say Employees!!!!!!!!!!!!! Believe it or not there is nothing I would rather do that stay home from my current job and clean snake poo every day ! What a dream!!!!!

I've found Sanichips to be my favorite substrate -- it's not as dusty as the shredded aspen and it vacuums up easier.

I like cypress as well but don't like that my snakes come out of their tub looking dirty. I've also had problems getting it in my area - least the clean bug free type.

For tank set ups I do like Reptibark.

I hate newspaper but have been using cage liner in my hatchling tubs this season and find that it works a little better -- but I'm still change out cages pretty much every day -- but it's better than paper towels. I prefer a substrate that will filter the fluids away from my snake and will allow me to spot clean -- the paper substrates just don't do that.

I tried those Sanichips I just didn't like how dry they were. It seems when I had a spill it would mold really fast. I did like the smell:)

I have been using the Harlan Teklad Shredded Aspen in all my boxes. It can be a bit dusty though.

I've found Sanichips to be my favorite substrate -- it's not as dusty as the shredded aspen and it vacuums up easier.

I like cypress as well but don't like that my snakes come out of their tub looking dirty. I've also had problems getting it in my area - least the clean bug free type.

For tank set ups I do like Reptibark.

I hate newspaper but have been using cage liner in my hatchling tubs this season and find that it works a little better -- but I'm still change out cages pretty much every day -- but it's better than paper towels. I prefer a substrate that will filter the fluids away from my snake and will allow me to spot clean -- the paper substrates just don't do that.

I used to use cage liners, but started having some mold issues under the water bowls. I do not have this issue with newspaper. I also used to use shredded aspen and did not like it at all for the same reasons you had.

Dude, after seeing how BT sets his up, I am all about the cypress mulch. I just stocked up for the winter. I had a hard time finding it. I finally found a local garden center that had it. It is very fine, maybe triple milled.

Dude, after seeing how BT sets his up, I am all about the cypress mulch. I just stocked up for the winter. I had a hard time finding it. I finally found a local garden center that had it. It is very fine, maybe triple milled.

Yea there is a big difference between cheap gas station cypress and Grade A twice or triple shredded stuff.

I use newspaper for sub adults and adults. Sometimes I use aspen. I use paper towels for babies.

I use unprinted packing paper. I get from the local Uhaul place. Since I have changed over its been great, a bit easier to clean and all that. Yeah doesn't hold humidity as well. But humidity is pretty good in the snake room year round. I just have to mist a bit once a snake goes blue.

Cypress mulch works great for me. Spot cleaning is a snap and when the snakes start to go into shed I put a little blue dot on their enclosures to alert me to mist them a bit more. You just have to be careful that it is pure Cypress and not a blend like they sell at the box stores. The blend contains Pine, which is something you do not want to use with your Ball’s.

Cypress mulch works great for me. Spot cleaning is a snap and when the snakes start to go into shed I put a little blue dot on their enclosures to alert me to mist them a bit more. You just have to be careful that it is pure Cypress and not a blend like they sell at the box stores. The blend contains Pine, which is something you do not want to use with your Ball’s.

Good point Albey

I use Aspen for the babies and Cypress or Unprinted newspaper for the adults.

Where do you get your cypress from? Do you guys buy in bulk?

any paper except the shiny stuff from magazines.
kinda forces you to clean the whole tub.
balls are so damn clean anyway.
so many species are like "land goldfish". crappin' all-the-do-da-day.
maybe twice a year i'll find a "dump and drag" situation, and i'm sure it's accidental. balls are too smart and sophisticated to participate in that drymarchon-esque behavior.
but hey, that's just me...
ck

I use aspen, but this cypress is starting to catch my eye.

Ive been using Carefresh Ultra for probally the last year and I have to say i absolutely love it!


Works good ,easy to clean doesnt mold to bad and looks fantastic!

Unprinted newspaper here, sometimes aspen.

Kambark double shredded cypress is the best I have ever used. Pete Kahl turned me on to it years ago. They have a website, call the number and ask if they ship to anyone around you. I use paper towels for the hatchlings and sani chip or shredded aspen for stuff a little bigger. Larry, they have different kinds of sani chip. Aspen, maple, and hard wood are a few. The aspen works best for me......

unprinted news paper

I use cypress but this past year I have been having a hell of a time finding a non blended variety. Thanks for the name Phil I sent them off an email to see if anywhere close stocks it, I would fill up for a year if I knew where to find some of the good stuff from.

I would not say that any is "best". I do think there are several that are better than most though. My personal favorite is Sani-Chips.

I use packing paper from UHAUL its like 8 bucks for like 800 sheets, like 3 months and i run out its great. :lol::letsparty:

I perfer paper towels but use some Aspen

Aspen, newspaper and paper towel.... all depends on the tubs.

I use either Aspen or newspaper.
And paper towles for hatchlings

newspaper works great for me

I use paper towels for the 6 and 15 qt tubs. The 32's, visions, boaphiles and homemade cages get newspaper. I've got a couple aquariums in use for the cresties and beardies and they get paper towels too.

the only thing I use aspen for is the rats, mice and hamsters.

No-Float Cypress ($2.89 for a huge bag), Paper Towel or newspaper....

Aspen I like for some reasons.... especially in getting picky eaters or baby's to feed... but I hate when it gets wet since it molds SO easily and quickly.

I like aspen and buy it from the guy I buy my rats from. I buy a huge bag of harlan aspen for $10.00 that is almost twice the size of the bags I would buy at petsmart and much softer aspen and less dust.

Use Corrugated Cardboard.
Buy it in a HUGE (200m roll) fro about the eq of $22.
It looks better then newspaper and works great.
The balls get it cos the tics like it:devil:
THE B

I like aspen and buy it from the guy I buy my rats from. I buy a huge bag of harlan aspen for $10.00 that is almost twice the size of the bags I would buy at petsmart and much softer aspen and less dust.

Harlans aspen is what I use also and it is great! I also use the aspen sani chip and am just as happy with it.......

i have used, just about every substrate out there it seems.

NONE of them compare to the cypress.

I used Aspen, for a good long while, and even went back to it again until my move to cypress.
Ive used carefresh, and Harlan Teklad Diamond Soft, Also, these small beaded paper pellet type things. * i forget the name* ive used a carefresh look alike too, as well as paper and Coconut bark, the repti bark as well.

Yep. Cypress all the way. The look of it, the amount of humidity it holds, and the ease of cleaning it too. PLUS it dosnt get EVERYWHERE like aspen does! :letsparty:

cotton.
my balls are happiest on cotton.
ck

I use brown packing paper (like craft paper) that comes on a huge role. Easy to use and clean for me. I used newspaper for a while until it marked up the nose of my first albino. That offended me and I only throw down food on it now. :)

No BP's right now, but wanted to throw in my .02.

I use newspaper, and still use aspen once in a while. The humidity is sooo high here naturally, that I have to watch excess moisture, so newspaper works best. I might have to stop by the UHaul place to check out the packing paper though.

I've been using Aspen, I like it ok, little dry, and freakin expensive, so I am thinking of making the switch to Cypress, what brand are you guys using, and what should I look for if I cant find that brand here?

I have used everything from sani chips to aspen to newspaper, and even tried butcher block paper but the best I've found for everything from holding humidity to ease of spot cleaning has got to be cypress mulch.

I have also tried many different things from newspaper,bark,cypress mulch,and aspen shavings. Since I have been keeping my 2 BPs in rubbermaids I like using aspen the most. If I was still keeping them in tanks I would probly go with cypress mulch..

Kambark double shredded cypress is the best I have ever used. Pete Kahl turned me on to it years ago. They have a website, call the number and ask if they ship to anyone around you. I use paper towels for the hatchlings and sani chip or shredded aspen for stuff a little bigger. Larry, they have different kinds of sani chip. Aspen, maple, and hard wood are a few. The aspen works best for me......
Kambark is AWESOME. I picked up a few bags of it last year. Just out of curiosity, how much does it usually cost? It seemed kind of expensive, especially when you can pick up single milled for $2.

I use paper towels for 6 and 15 qt tubs and newspaper for all the larger tubs. I use a humidifer in my room, so I don't need anything for humidity in my tubs. :yessir:

"In other words..... newspaper was the balls"

Newspaper. Shredded Aspen, and repti-bark:)

People should stay away from substrate held in brown bags. I caught mites twice using Sani-chips. Never again.

Aspen, it spot cleans easy and if you don't throw it around the dust isn't that bad. works for me.

I used to use cage liners, but started having some mold issues under the water bowls. I do not have this issue with newspaper.

Newpaper has mild antiseptic properties. With cage liners, putting a section of newspaper under that water bowl is helpful.

Newpaper has mild antiseptic properties. With cage liners, putting a section of newspaper under that water bowl is helpful.

Thats interesting. Good to know. Ill have to try that.

Ive been using Carefresh Ultra for probally the last year and I have to say i absolutely love it!


Works good ,easy to clean doesnt mold to bad and looks fantastic!

I have just started using the carefresh too. seems expensive until you see how far the bag will really go, still more expensive then the wood shaving but this stuff is easily spot cleaned and then vacuumed out.

I bought some packing paper made buy DuckTape brand. under $2 for 50sq feet at your local wal-mart in the shipping supplies section. the only beef i have with it is that i have to cut it to fit. Other then that, super easy.

I'm playing around with those 2 types for now.

I agree with the brown paper bagged substrate leading to mite problems. I rarely have mite issues with cypress.

The only way you would get mites from the wood is if they were wood mites or the wood was kept in the area someone had snakes infected with snake mites. Snake mites would not live to long on the wood without a host.

Quite honestly I think it has something to do with the lack of humidity that those types of substrates hold thus making incubation of the mites a quicker process. It seems like they just pop up a lot more often with aspen. At least they do for me.

My point was just that you dont get snake mites from bedding unless it was kept where someone has had mites recently. Snake mites do NOT live in bedding for long unless there is a host near by.

Newspaprt for adults, paper towels for babies.

Newpaper has mild antiseptic properties. With cage liners, putting a section of newspaper under that water bowl is helpful.

I would like to look into this. Thanks for bringing that up.

I use Diamond Soft for both my snakes and my rats. I like this substrate because is soaks up pee very well and keeps any smell down. It makes it very easy to spot clean and is fairly inexpensive. If it wasn't for the rats, 3 Bags would probably last me a whole year and that would only cost 90$. Unfortunately I have 28 rats to house and between the snakes/rats 3 bags will last me 2 months.

I know Im a little late to this thread.... but $90 for 3 bags of cypress..... deeeammmm I can get it from lowes for $5 a bag.

news paper.......cheap......cheap!

Big Gunns likes Cypress for adults and Aspen for babies.



Here's a BG tip people and don't assume it's not a GREAT tip because it has been proven to be a great tip time and time again.

Baby ball Pythons....even the ones that haven't eaten for you for weeks.... will eat if you put them on Aspen 9 times out of 10. BG has given this tip to many people and most have been happy the listened to Big Gunns. Even babies near death may eat on Aspen.

This is why BG starts all babies on Aspen. Why mess with a good thing?

I'm kind of back and forth between aspen and newspaper. I typically prefer newspaper though because the humidity in my room is usually around 40% so anything that puts off a lot of moisture like cypress blows the humidity in the tubs through the roof! Aspen works well for me though because it's fairly dry the only thing I don't like is every time I take the snakes out it gets all over the carpet!

I am a newspaper guy. My snakes like to keep up on current events:machinegun:

I don't think there is such a thing as ONE good substrate. Lately I switched back to shredded aspen because trying to keep up the humidity in the wintertime on newspaper was getting ridiculous, though I prefer newspaper most of the time.

I didn't really like the cypress all that much because it was so dirty, though it's possible I wasn't using the 'right' brand of cypress. I'll have to look into that Kambark stuff that Phil mentioned.

In a perfect world I'd say unprinted newspaper is the better substrate of the two. Cypress makes keeping a larger number of snakes easier for me. Spot cleaning saves so much time.


Agree there, but I only have one snake now, so I'll probably come around once my collection picks up..:cool:

Hatchlings = paper towels for at least the first month

Babies = aspen shavings or chips ( I prefer chips but shavings are cheaper)

Juvies and adults = Cypress all the way ( Holds humidity up way better in larger tubs and cages)

i have all mine on unprinted news paper

its great

i get a budle of 50 sheets for about £4 and that lasts the entire bp collection and 2 boas about 8weeks

Cypress mulch for me.

u use paper in breeding season and shreded aspen the rest of the time to be honest i hate paper id rather recyle it if i could

ed

Whoa!! Looks like I'm late at gettin' in this one too. I used cypress for a long while. I like that it holds humidity well. I didn't have problems with mold. At present I'm using Putt Putt Golf green. Same, same reptile carpet I imagine. Gotta wash it once a week but it works for me.