What is the best substrate?

To answer that question, we need to look at;
  • What a substrate is supposed to do.
  • How important looks are to you.
  • How many snakes you are keeping.
  • What type of snakes you are keeping.
  • How much time you have for cleaning.
  • Your budget.
After addressing all of those points, you should be able to easily decide what substrate works best for your situation. For me, the biggest issue was figuring out what the snake needs to thrive. After that would be cost and then how easy it is to clean. Looks aren't really a priority for me but for some, that is important and you have lots of options in that respect.

Here is a list of some of the more commonly used substrates and what I feel are their strong points and weak points.

Aspen shavings/chips

Looks:
Price:
Safety:
Practicality:
Health:
Over all:

Aspen is one of the safer wood substrates to use. It is kind of expensive but it can look attractive and is fairly easy to clean. It is a good choice for a species that likes to burrow but it can be ingested while feeding which can be a bad thing. Some people who use aspen choose to feed their snakes in a separate feeding box to avoid any unintentional ingestion. Aspen shavings have been known to develop mold quickly when used in setups needing higher humidity.

Pine shavings

Looks:
Price:
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Practicality:
Health:
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Pine shavings are cheaper than aspen but are not as ideal, or some people say. They are said to be slightly toxic to snakes but I'm not sure about that myself. I wouldn't keep any snakes on pine shavings long term but I know people do and have had no problems. They also run the risk of being swallowed during feeding and that may cause impaction which can be deadly.

Paper towels

Looks:
Price:
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Practicality:
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While paper towels are not the most attractive looking substrate, they are very easy to clean/throw away. They are also ideal for snakes still in quarantine. It is easy to spot problems with feces, mites, ticks, bad sheds or any number of other issues. One of the only down sides other than looks is price... they aren't free but they are pretty cheap.

News paper/print

Looks:
Price:
Safety:
Practicality:
Health:
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News paper rates below paper towel in the looks category but gets 5 stars in the price category. I can get stacks of it for free every month when the new "community news paper" is issued. It's easy to clean/throw away but it is a bit more difficult to spot problems on. It is still a better choice for quarantine than wood shavings, in my opinion. It can be used in various layers to either hold or absorb moisture and snakes will often use it like another hide. I use news paper for 90% of my snakes.

Astro turf/carpet

Looks:
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Not a great choice. It is hard to clean and holds bacteria unless you are throwing it away each week. If you do wash it properly, you'll need to dry it out before putting it back in the snake's enclosure or keep multiple pieces around. Not my idea of a convenient substrate. While some may think it looks better than paper towels or newspaper, I disagree. I think it looks really cheap and offers none of the benefits the other substrates do.

Sand or Dirt

Looks:
Price:
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Practicality:
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Not a very good choice. Sand, especially can get under scales and cause a lot of problems for your snake. It is also not a great idea to feed on sand because of the risk of some being eaten. In my younger years, I kept snakes on both sand and dirt and didn't notice any immediate problems but I also did not have those snakes for very long. Given all of the superior substrates out there, these two rank very low on my list.


I will add more substrates to this list as I try them out.

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Last Updated: April 16th