I was just wondering what the best substrate/bedding would be for a very humid cage (80-85% humidity)? I don't want bacteria to grow and spread disease to my snake and I don't think I want to use orchid bark for him anymore since bark is known to house bacterias. I also have peat moss (in soil type form) in there for extra moisture.

If anyone has any suggestions on a better substrate I would appreciate it. Also, I was wondering if I should be using sphagnum peat moss or will regular planter peat moss work?

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What snake is it for? - your Brazilian Rainbow Boa? To be honest, we keep our BRBs on newspaper with no problems; they are housed in plastic enclosures, which we find works much better for snakes requiring higher humidity as it keeps the humidity far better than other materials. We lightly mist the paper and enclosure when it needs it and they have large water bowls and moist hides.

Substrates to use for humid-loving reptiles includes the orchid bark, compressed cocoa fibre and moss, but of course these substrates still require regular misting to ensure they keep moist. We use orchid bark for our whites tree frog and it stays almost saturated with water all the time and does not rot at all. We use moss for our horned frog and again, it's very good at staying fresh and not growing mold or other nasties.. The moss is also good as you can take it out and wash it and re-use it rather than just dispose of it after one use.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

Reptile carpet. Pretty, easy to clean, wooh.

I use compressed cocoa fibre bricks dissolved in water for my BP and rainbow boas. It holds humidity well and doesn't usually get moldy. I have to mist it or re-wet it every now and then but it looks nice and smells good.
Right now I have Crias on paper towel because of his parasites, I have a larger pool of water to help with the humidity but I still have to mist at least twice a day.
For our GTPs we use paper towel substrate, but we have a few live plants in there which help with the humidity.

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Andrea

Regular cypress mulch from the garden center works well and looks very natural. It is very water absorbant. My ball python breeding buddy uses it in his enclosures. Just put it in a bucket of water overnight and it absorbs a great deal.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I know alot of Brazilian Rainbow Boa keepers that use cypress muclh

Thanks guys, I am really unimpressed with orchid bark because after a couple days it needs cleaning because it starts to smell of old wood lol. I'll try cypress mulch. It's not that I'm having a hard time keeping the humidity up, it's just trying to find a substrate that will handle it well without going gross so fast.

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Since cypress is a swamp tree anyway it deals better with being damp. Thats what makes it such a great landscape mulch!
Just make sure you get natural cypress. Some of it has a red dye the will come off on you and your animals.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Thanks for the info!

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