Hi there:
I'm sure you must feed like you're being ganged up on, but our concerns are for the well-being of your snake and we want to help you to give him the best possible care.
My husband and I tried using the clay pellets as a substrate for our Green Tree Pythons, since they are seldom on the ground and it holds humidity well.
We put the pellets in an empty terrarium for a while to monitor the humidity and temperature, and it seemed like a good thing.
So we put one of our baby chondros in a terrarium with clay pellet substrate. But it did not take long to discover the drawbacks: It is a horror to clean up! Urates and feces just soak up and sink in between the stuff and for that reason alone it is a breeding ground for bacteria and trouble. (Also dead leaves would fall into it and get all stuck and rot.) Here's a pic from when we had it: of course the Green Tree Python baby did go down on the ground and I didn't like him crawling on that.
Within a few days we cleared all of that out and have used paper towels for the GTPs ever since. Here is our Green Tree Python set up (the paper towel works great as a substrate for them.) It holds moisture well enough with the live plants providing some humidity as well. MUCH easier to clean!!!
I use Terrarium soil humus for my Ball Python. But I always feed him in a separate plastic tub. This is his set up:
From my own experience (fortunately not as bad as some) I would not recommend using the pellets for pets. Just not sanitary... especially for a ground dwelling snake like a BP. Terrarium soil is much easier to spot-clean and my BP likes digging tunnels in it.
Don't use pine shavings though! It's toxic for reptiles. Aspen is the type most often recommended and has proven itself in the herp community.
Try it!
