Okay. Help me decide here.

I have a young bredli. Now that he's out of quarantine I want to move him to my 40 gal front open enclosure(I will upgrade to a 4x2x2 or bigger when he gets bigger, been debating on ordering or making one)

So I've kept BPs prior to him. I've kept them all on either paper towels or the repti liner from a gecko and his pj's. Which is super easy to clean lol.
I've been debating for when I move my Bredli to the 40 gallon to either stay with the repti-liner, start using eco-earth or kind of in a way do half and half. One side repti liner, one side eco earth.
I feed thawed and in the enclosure. I've heard people talk about incidents where their snake ingests substrate so I've stayed away from loose substrates.
I guess I'm just looking for someone to ease my mind about using loose substrate.
Also, if anyone can show pictures of their carpets enclosure that'd be helpful! And tips! I currently have a few hides and a few pieces of driftwood, but I want to get a bit creative.

Thank you in advanced!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nitewolfie

I have a young bredli. Now that he's out of quarantine I want to move him to my 40 gal front open enclosure(I will upgrade to a 4x2x2 or bigger when he gets bigger, been debating on ordering or making one)

So I've kept BPs prior to him. I've kept them all on either paper towels or the repti liner from a gecko and his pj's. Which is super easy to clean lol.
I've been debating for when I move my Bredli to the 40 gallon to either stay with the repti-liner, start using eco-earth or kind of in a way do half and half. One side repti liner, one side eco earth.
I feed thawed and in the enclosure. I've heard people talk about incidents where their snake ingests substrate so I've stayed away from loose substrates.
I guess I'm just looking for someone to ease my mind about using loose substrate.
Also, if anyone can show pictures of their carpets enclosure that'd be helpful! And tips! I currently have a few hides and a few pieces of driftwood, but I want to get a bit creative.

Thank you in advanced!

---

For my Children's python, I use half repti-carpet and half loose substrate (paper shreds). Pics of my set up:
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/sho...mageuser=79455
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/sho...mageuser=79455
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/sho...mageuser=79455
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/sho...mageuser=79455.

So the paper shreds are underneath?
That looks cool btw! Did you build it yourself?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nitewolfie

So the paper shreds are underneath?
That looks cool btw! Did you build it yourself?

---

Thanks. I did. I built it for my ball python. I had him in a tub, but he started to injure himself trying to escape. So, I decided to give him a terrarium to escape into. It worked well for him and it's been working well for my Children's python.

If you decide to build your enclosure along these lines, it's really simple. It's just a box with a shelf. You don't need anything you can't get from your local Lowes or Home Depot.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nitewolfie

So the paper shreds are underneath?

---

Yes. The paper shreds are in the tub underneath. I feed my snake on the repti-carpet. So, I don't have to worry about him ingesting substrate.

Nothing wrong with loose substrate.
I've had every snake here ingest some substrate over the years. They get it in the wild they get it in captivity, and I'd say 99.9% of the time there is never an issue.
Maybe some larger, hard and pointy substrate could cause an issue, but monitoring the feeding is a good practice so you should see a potential issue. I've used feeding tongs on a few occasions to pull some coco husk out of a mouth.

I really like to coco chips. I use a mix for the boa. but the Bredli can sit on dry substrate and the coco chips eventually replicate an arid desert floor to some extent.

He's on coconut husk here and hasn't had any issues.
https://i.imgur.com/vXUaizj.jpg

Of the 4 snakes here, the Bredli is the most arboreal, however very snake here, even the Royal will hit the perches.
https://i.imgur.com/hjHGq0E.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/67EkSoo.jpg

Go natural and enjoy!
https://i.imgur.com/2a8SMkq.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gio

Nothing wrong with loose substrate.
I've had every snake here ingest some substrate over the years. They get it in the wild they get it in captivity, and I'd say 99.9% of the time there is never an issue.
Maybe some larger, hard and pointy substrate could cause an issue, but monitoring the feeding is a good practice so you should see a potential issue. I've used feeding tongs on a few occasions to pull some coco husk out of a mouth.

---

See that's what I thought, they eat on whatever substrate in the wild.
I'm thinking of doing half and half or all eco earth. I feel like doing half and half would look really cool. But I also want to do more natural like enclosure.

Thank you guys for your input!

Also he's beautiful!

I use paper substrate. In a good PVC enclosure and with a big water bowl, humidity isn't an issue and cleanup is easy. I go for cleanliness and function over form. Yafe is happy as long as he can climb and has adequate heat and humidity as well as his ground hides (which he rarely uses - he's a great display snake).

Yafe was lost in shipment when I got him and had a terrible RI that I cured him of. He's been trouble free since (about 3 1/2 years) and has grown to about 1.5kg from 100g. Humidity and temps are obvisouly important, but especially for him since he's already had an RI. Keep in mind though that too much humidity isn't good either. You may have to experiment if you use "natural" looking substrate.

My take is the snakes do not care and it's more important to keep them clean and healthy instead of the tank looking good. I also have limited time and energy and 9 tanks, so paper works for me.

Having said that, if you have the time and energy, go for a great looking naturalistic enclosure. Carpets are great display snakes and spend a lot of time out in the open. If you are going to choose a tank to do that with, a carpet tank makes a lot of sense.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach.../IMG_5299.HEIChttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach.../IMG_5303.HEIC

He's beautiful! I'm sorry he got lost and got RI. I'm glad he's doing good now though!

Dumb question. I've seen perches that go across the enclosure like what you have. How do you get them to stay up like that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nitewolfie

He's beautiful! I'm sorry he got lost and got RI. I'm glad he's doing good now though!

Dumb question. I've seen perches that go across the enclosure like what you have. How do you get them to stay up like that?

---

Thank you! Yeah, he's been perfect for years. No signs of RI, eats like a pig, bright and vibrant. He has also always been a real chill dude. I was worried the RI treatment would throw him off, or that he was just chill because he was sick. To this day, aside from some occasional hissing if I wake him up, he's a real sweet guy.

Not a dumb question. I got the tank from Jeff Ronne, the Boaphile, and it's one of his arboreal tanks. He installs little PVC blocks at an angle to make "V" on each side that the PVC pipe can sit in. The weight of the PVC pipe keeps them in place. If you wanted to be safe, you could drill a little hole in the middle of the "V" and put a rod through the hollow PVC to keep in it place. The blocks are screwed and glued in.

I imagine you could do a similar install on any PVC tank, but would want to check the angle of each block and the size of each block to make sure the PVC sits in properly and with a little depth so it doesn't just roll out.

Either way, you want them to be removable to clean the tank and the PVC perches.