Right now I have in a ten gallon tank with ground european walnut shells as substrate. I recently heard that this could possibly be toxic to her and have decided to change to another type of bedding. Is the cypress mulch bed that I can buy at a place like Petco good or is there something better. Any suggestions? She is an adult Oketee Corn.
Corn Snake Bedding
- Thread starter R.W.
- Start date
clean white butcher paper, or newspaper.
easy to clean, maintin, and less chance of disease or mite infestations.
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- Aug 16, 2005
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newspaper works..but i think the aspen bedding looks a LOT better. just don't feed directly on it so that the snake doesn't ingest some of it. that stuff can become impacted. i would either remove the snake and feed in a different enclosure, or just place the food in a small plastic bowl or something like that and put it in the snakes enclosure.
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What? :?
RW-if you're suggesting that you intend to take substrate out of a tarantula enclosure and use it for a snake, I would really recommend you not do this. It's not disinfecting you need to worry about, it's putting your snake into substrate that may have urticating hairs imbedded in it.
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- May 12, 2006
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I would highly recommend aspen shavings. They're soft, non-toxic, able to be tunneled through, inexpensive, and easy to spot clean.
The crushed walnut shells are horrid for snake bedding. They get in their mouth, nostrils, in the vent, under the scales...and stick REALLY well to food if you feed in the container.
I wouldn't recommend cypress bedding because it's splintery, and can get in places it shouldn't and cause sores. Not to mention its extremely hard to spot clean when the snake poops. So you're going to be replacing it more frequently.
Paper works okay, but most times the snake ends up under it and pooping on the glass bottom, which defeats the purpose. Also, if the snake poops on the paper, it looks awful and smells awful so you're going to have to clean it up in short order, or the snake will slither through it.
And FYI, a 10 gallon REALLY is not big enough for an adult corn snake. They're not like tarantulas, a single adult corn snake would be fine in a 20 gallon long aquarium as a minimum.
The crushed walnut shells are horrid for snake bedding. They get in their mouth, nostrils, in the vent, under the scales...and stick REALLY well to food if you feed in the container.
I wouldn't recommend cypress bedding because it's splintery, and can get in places it shouldn't and cause sores. Not to mention its extremely hard to spot clean when the snake poops. So you're going to be replacing it more frequently.
Paper works okay, but most times the snake ends up under it and pooping on the glass bottom, which defeats the purpose. Also, if the snake poops on the paper, it looks awful and smells awful so you're going to have to clean it up in short order, or the snake will slither through it.
And FYI, a 10 gallon REALLY is not big enough for an adult corn snake. They're not like tarantulas, a single adult corn snake would be fine in a 20 gallon long aquarium as a minimum.
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- Apr 2, 2003
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For looks, go with aspen. For easy clean up, go with newspaper.
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- May 12, 2006
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The relative humidity in most homes is adequate for corn snakes, I've found. I don't usually worry about mine at all, then again I live in the swamp that is Southern Indiana, and humidity around these parts is anywhere from 40-90%. Our indoor relative humidity runs somewhere around 40-50%.
If you run into a bad shed due to low humidity, the best thing to do is just put in a moist hide, rather than misting the snake's home...which quickly leads to mold growth. Just get a plastic container, cut a hole in the lid and put moist paper towel or sphagnum moss inside when you notice your snake going blue. They'll take care of the rest if they need it.
As for temps, I keep all of mine in a room that's kept 80-85*F. But so long as one end of the tank is 82-85 that should be fine, too. Anything above 85 for too long stresses them out and can lead to regurging, anything below 80 for too long can cause them to regurge as well. Adults are little more tolerant of temperature gradients, but still do best in the above range.
If this is your first corn snake, I would highly recommend the Corn Snake Manual by Kathy Love, an invaluable book that covers just about everything you could possibly want to know about corn snakes. =)
If you run into a bad shed due to low humidity, the best thing to do is just put in a moist hide, rather than misting the snake's home...which quickly leads to mold growth. Just get a plastic container, cut a hole in the lid and put moist paper towel or sphagnum moss inside when you notice your snake going blue. They'll take care of the rest if they need it.
As for temps, I keep all of mine in a room that's kept 80-85*F. But so long as one end of the tank is 82-85 that should be fine, too. Anything above 85 for too long stresses them out and can lead to regurging, anything below 80 for too long can cause them to regurge as well. Adults are little more tolerant of temperature gradients, but still do best in the above range.
If this is your first corn snake, I would highly recommend the Corn Snake Manual by Kathy Love, an invaluable book that covers just about everything you could possibly want to know about corn snakes. =)
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- Apr 2, 2003
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- 146
I use a dog dish with a hole cut out of the side. I'm able to provide a water dish and a hid too. Make sure that it has plenty of room under the bowl to do this or your just going to waste your time cutting a hole that doesn't work.
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- Sep 19, 2005
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I just go to the dollar store and get a heavy ceramic bowl for water.
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thats what i do too. funny thing is..i rarely see them drink, but if i manage to let the bowl go dry..they lay in the bowl as if trying to tell me they are thirsty. 