Substrate for Colombian Boa?

Question

I just bought a CB female Colombian Boa that was born in May '07. She will arrive on Wednesday.
I have a 20g long tank set up for her with a nice hide spot, UTH, and water bowl. I've read several different places that these types of snakes don't need an overhead light, so, although I have one just in case, it's not setup with her cage.
Anyway, my main problem is the substrate. I cannot decide on what to get. I know pine, cedar and fir are poisonous, so that's out of the question. Newspaper isn't the most attractive thing, and not very comfortable I could image. So, I'm left with coconut bark, cypress*, aspen or something else I haven't heard of or have forgotten.
*= I'd much prefer not to use cypress for moral reasons...destroying parts of Louisiana to harvest the cypress. So, I don't want to support that.

So, now back to the whole question. What is best to use? What do you use? And why? Pros and Cons?

Answer 1

I use coconut bark for my two boas because I like the humidity it provides but I wanted to mention that you may need the light as well. Boas should have an ambient "background" temperature in the cage that is about 85F in addition to a basking spot that is about 95F. You will likely not be able to achieve that with just an UTH in your size tank and will probably need to supplement with a light for extra heat. Perhaps not now, in the summer, but almost definitely as fall approaches. I use red lights on my boas for this purpose. Enjoy your new snake!

Answer 2

I've bred boas and pythons 4 some time now and I know this is what has worked very well 4 me.....I use news paper, a good friend of mine(also a snake breeder) told me about this and this was the reasoning that he gave me........1..News paper is inexpensive and bio-degradable...2..The newspaper is relatively stairl, a lot cleaner that "any" bedding......3..If you get "mites" ot anything else in your cage you will notice it very easy be for it gets out of hand, and alot of bedding materials are "perfect" 4 mite's, worms,mold,exc to live.......4...Very easy to clean up, after it deficates,spills the water dish,exc........This has worked great 4 me 4 years......It is simple, but sometimes simplicity is the best.........May not look the best, but your snake will be alot healthier and live a longer life if you keep its enviroment as clean as you can.........

Answer 3

I use carpet. I cover the carpet with newspaper during the feeding as it happened one time that my boa struck at the rat and she got her teeth caught in the carpet. needless to see nothing serious happened but i didn't want this to happen again.

So basically whatever substrate you use always make sure your snake cannot ingest some or get hooked.

Answer 4

Really bad substrate could be ingested and cause impaction use newspaper, aspen bedding or wood chippings.

Answer 5

Reptibark it's top of the line with 8qts. costing 18bucks but in your tank it will last a long time, it's also washable.and you do need light for the heat it provides which is needed for digestion,appetite,and general health