is soil and leaf litter ok to use for a corn?? and if any one has any other ideas please let me know.
I use Cypress Mulch... it's cheap, easy to clean, and looks nice. You can pick it up at most Walmarts and Home Depot stores.
I use aspen shavings... I like the lighter color, and it clumps OK. Not only that, my snake loves burrowing in it, and it's very moldable. He'll burrow, and the hole with stay. He pushes up little walls inside his caves to hide himself even more. I think he likes it :lol:
You could try using artificial leves on top of the substrate if you want to make the cage more natural-looking. They're pretty cheap and can be disinfected when necessary. I wouldn't use soil and leaf litter from outside unless you have some way of sterilizing them and even then, it's just too much work to go through when the artificial stuff works just as well.
Ooo I was thinking of using fake vines, but hadn't thought of fake leaves on the floor :lol: That would prevent obstructing the view :lol:
You can buy them by the bunch on stems but they pull right of and you just sort of 'sprinkle' them on the bottom. Plus they have all kinds of colors and types of leaves so you can mix it up and switch them out real easy.
Do you need to disinfect the fake leaves with boiling hot water before you use them??? Also, we are using the cage carpeting...can we place the aspen bedding on top of the carpeting??? I'm thinking I'd just like a small area for Markey to be able to burrow in..... I'm new to the snake world as this is our first one....it's an orange albino ok..about 6-7 months old. Thanks!
I would disinfect the leaves in a 10% bleach solution. Just soak them for a couple hours then rinse and soak in plain water for a couple more hours. But that only works for plastic leaves. The fabric leaves would need to be boiled to disinfect. I don't see a problem with putting bedding on top of carpeting except that there would be bedding trapped in the carpeting probably. But other than that I'm sure it would work out ok.
don't use calci-sand, it clumps when it gets wet and can cause impactions. if you want to use sand then get playsand. it can cause impations as well, but not as easily as the calci-sand and it cost's alot less, $2.50 for a 50lb bag at wal-mart opposed to the $10 for a 5lb bag of calci-sand. but i dont know if sand is a good substare to use for a snake.
I wouldnt recommend sand for a corn snake. It wont hold humidity and any mess will run through it and build up on the bottom of the tank. The best bet would be mulch, aspen, newspaper, cage carpet (astro-turf), or paper towels. If you go for mulch make sure that you do not get pine or cedar.
