# Best messy reptile or Drymarchon substrate advice



## AshSeraph19 (Jun 4, 2015)

Hi guys 

I wanted to know people opinions on the best kind of bedding to use for Drymarchon or other highly messy reptiles 🐍 Whether it be through personal experience of usage or possibly bedding suggestions that you think works well in terms of absorbency and odor reducing.

I currently use Lignocel but am looking at other alternatives to add to the mix i.e wood/grass/straw pellets, Megazorb etc

I am searching for ideas and would be grateful for any opinions or suggestions ☺ Thank you.


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## StuG (Nov 4, 2009)

AshSeraph19 said:


> Hi guys
> 
> I wanted to know people opinions on the best kind of bedding to use for Drymarchon or other highly messy reptiles 🐍 Whether it be through personal experience of usage or possibly bedding suggestions that you think works well in terms of absorbency and odor reducing.
> 
> ...


A naturalistic/bio-active. I find a soil/sand substrate with a clean up crew is brilliant for garters etc. obviously Drymarchon is much larger and you might need to help out a bit more but the principle should still work and it will help keep the smell’s down etc. it doesn’t need to be fully bio-active


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## The1972 (Sep 10, 2021)

wood pellet or other degradable cat litter works well, or sheets of corrugated cardboard, or sheets of paper, believe me these guys are messy , it isn't a case of something is best it's more of what works for the snake and you, I like really clean viv's, viv's I can strip and wash down, honestly the snakes don't care, their very adaptable , mine thrive in my care so like I say it's what works best for the species you keep.


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## LiasisUK (Sep 30, 2019)

Bioactive is pointless for large snakes. Especially for things as messy as a cribo, even with untold quantity of custodians you'd have to gut the enclosure frequently and replace, making their presence negligible as just an extra expense to replace. Bioactive is for amphibians and small tropical lizards only. 

For large messy snakes that don't need too much humidity I use lignocel. It's very absorbent, quite cheap, readily available (usually), dust extracted and absorbs smells. It's also relatively natural for them in the way it behaves, but not so much how it looks. 

For higher humidity species (some Drymarchon must be kept at higher humidity than others, and you did not specify the species) I use coir. The expanding bricks, you can get them very cheap on eBay. Again this is very absorbent and very cheap. It is however quite dusty if left to dry out. It has a more natural smell than lignocel and looks more naturalistic. You can mix it with some orchid bark or larger size coir or leaf litter for an even more natural look.


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## AshSeraph19 (Jun 4, 2015)

LiasisUK said:


> Bioactive is pointless for large snakes. Especially for things as messy as a cribo, even with untold quantity of custodians you'd have to gut the enclosure frequently and replace, making their presence negligible as just an extra expense to replace. Bioactive is for amphibians and small tropical lizards only.
> 
> For large messy snakes that don't need too much humidity I use lignocel. It's very absorbent, quite cheap, readily available (usually), dust extracted and absorbs smells. It's also relatively natural for them in the way it behaves, but not so much how it looks.
> 
> For higher humidity species (some Drymarchon must be kept at higher humidity than others, and you did not specify the species) I use coir. The expanding bricks, you can get them very cheap on eBay. Again this is very absorbent and very cheap. It is however quite dusty if left to dry out. It has a more natural smell than lignocel and looks more naturalistic. You can mix it with some orchid bark or larger size coir or leaf litter for an even more natural look.


Sorry! The spieces is Eastern Indigo. I do already use Lignocel for my other colubrids and that works more than fine for them but I was looking for other alternative substrates in terms of both practicality, odor control and absorption (to be honest if you poop scoop as soon as they go that helps with any smell immediately!). I will take into consideration of maybe doing a coir and lignocel mix and do an experiment to see how that works. I was also going to grab some herbi-floor pellet bedding as well and add that into the mix. Thank you for your advice! ☺


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## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

I know nothing of these snakes, but if suitable for them, aubiose is fantastic. If you have a farm food/accessories supplier near you or horse supplies place, you should be able to buy huge bags cheaply.


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## AshSeraph19 (Jun 4, 2015)

StuG said:


> A naturalistic/bio-active. I find a soil/sand substrate with a clean up crew is brilliant for garters etc. obviously Drymarchon is much larger and you might need to help out a bit more but the principle should still work and it will help keep the smell’s down etc. it doesn’t need to be fully bio-active
> [/


I would love to go bio active with a Drymarchon but I know that when they become adults it will be harder for me to keep up with the costs of cleaning out the enclosure presently. I could go for bioactive while the snake is young (will be around 3 month old) and possibly for a couple of years but once he becomes a large 7ft+ adult, who is a pooping machine it still means I would have to clean out a lot more regularly than say for a bioactive Kingsnake for example.

I will look into bio active short term though thank you for your advice! ☺


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## AshSeraph19 (Jun 4, 2015)

Elly66 said:


> I know nothing of these snakes, but if suitable for them, aubiose is fantastic. If you have a farm food/accessories supplier near you or horse supplies place, you should be able to buy huge bags cheaply.


Thank you for the suggestion! I will look into Aubiose as I know when I was researching it was mentioned alongside Megazorb horse bedding ☺ Thank you!


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## LiasisUK (Sep 30, 2019)

Megazorb and Aubiose are both used by some keepers I know and they like it. Another friend of mine uses just dust extracted wood shavings, like you would for a guineapig or rabbit, and he swears by it, it's exceptionally cheap so you can just gut the enclosure and bin it and replace. 

I never like newspaper or other cardboard/paper substrates for colubrids as they produce so much waste. 

ZooMed Forest floor, which is Cypress Mulch, is also a great substrate, but it is very expensive.


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

Elly66 said:


> I know nothing of these snakes, but if suitable for them, aubiose is fantastic. If you have a farm food/accessories supplier near you or horse supplies place, you should be able to buy huge bags cheaply.





LiasisUK said:


> Megazorb and Aubiose are both used by some keepers I know and they like it.


I've used both products in my 8' boa's enclosure and both cope with the amount of mess that comes from a large snake. Megazorb does need changing more as once damp it can smell being a bi-product of the paper industry. Auboise does tend to get everywhere, but is fine if ingested (as is Megazorb), and is cheap. I purchased another 20kg bail yesterday and paid £10.74 inc VAT


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## LiasisUK (Sep 30, 2019)

The mess from a Drymarchon makes boa mess look like nothing 🤣🤣


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## The1972 (Sep 10, 2021)

LiasisUK said:


> The mess from a Drymarchon makes boa mess look like nothing 🤣🤣


You want to see what a blood python dump looks like, nothing like it


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## John Hufton (Oct 29, 2012)

I use hydroponic coir for my cribos but if you want bioactive it’s perfectly possible. Check out Joe Monahan on Facebook.


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## LiasisUK (Sep 30, 2019)

The1972 said:


> You want to see what a blood python dump looks like, nothing like it


I've kept and bred bloods. Trust me; Drymarchon are worst! It's liquid and frequent. Rather than 50% the size of the snake but only once every so often.


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## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

Malc said:


> I've used both products in my 8' boa's enclosure and both cope with the amount of mess that comes from a large snake. Megazorb does need changing more as once damp it can smell being a bi-product of the paper industry. Auboise does tend to get everywhere, but is fine if ingested (as is Megazorb), and is cheap. I purchased another 20kg bail yesterday and paid £10.74 inc VAT


Yes, we've found aubiose better for keeping moisture and smell down. It's been an all-rounder of ours, as can be used for so many different animals. These days it's just for our chickens and snakes. We're lucky to have a farm supply shop near us, joys of country living.


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