substrate for babies

[kl]

Just checking to see what other breeders use for substrate when housing the offspring. I know many use paper towels but others still use normal substrate. There's no question the babies seem more comfortable being able to bury into the stuff but how safe is it for them?

KL

[Fatal_S]

I use paper towel so I can easily see waste with the newborns; I want to know they're passing everything well. I give them a hide too, but most of them end up snoozing under the paper towel.

After a couple weeks of that I switch to regular aspen shavings so they can burrow normally. I've yet to have any issues with using substrate - the babies spit it out just as well as the adults do. So it's not about safety for me, it's just for ease of monitoring those first couple weeks.

[Jeff]

I generally use paper towels for a couple weeks too. Then aspen shavings, for the same reasons as Mel. I've never had an issue yet. I have also put newborns in aspen as soon as they finish eating their yolk sac. I've had no problems from that either.

The reason I put babies in Aspen rather than the cypress that I use for most of my adults is because it is softer. I'm sure they would be fine in the cypress too, but they seem so delicate when they are first born that I just like to give them something soft to burrow around in.

[mark_w]

Kim I must admit, mine have all gone on to cypress or beechwood chips. Never had a problem.

[Richard.C]

Mine go on anything from sand,astro turf,newspaper to sugar cane mulch