Spotted Python Substrate

Video Transcript

"The next thing we're going to talk about is substrate for your spotted python enclosure. Now, when I say substrate, what I'm talking about is the bedding that is going to do in your tank. We reptile people like to use substrate, it sounds fancy and technical. There's a couple of different choices you have. You can do what's one of my personal favorites, which is the coco bedding, which is basically shredded coconut husks. It comes in a brick form. You're going to soak that in a gallon of warm water for about half an hour. It spreads out, does a lot of floor space, very good. It's very good for your reptile, holds a lot of humidity in it, it's easy to use, and it's very, very cheap. Another way to go is like your douglas fir bark, or any other kind of large wood chip bark. You want to make sure you're not using cedar. Cedar has oils in there that are potentially harmful. It's a little bit more expensive than the coco bedding, and the bags don't naturally do as much floor space but also very attractive looking and very safe for your reptile. While you're doing that, you can also add some of this moss stuff that you can buy at a local pet store, helps spice it up a little bit, add a little bit of color, helps hold humidity as well, I like using the moss in pretty much any tropical or temperate enclosure, anything that's not a desert. It just adds a little bit more realism to the enclosure, which is always good. You want your enclosure to look attractive. Now, if you're not looking for necessarily a natural look, but you're looking for something that's maybe a little bit more inexpensive but not as inexpensive as the coco bedding, there's always the shredded aspen bedding. Not my personal favorite, I don't like how it looks in an aquarium, and I don't think the reptiles necessarily enjoy it all that much, but it is an alternative that you can try and is probably a little bit more readily available than some of the other products, depending on where you are."