Zilla Reptile Terrarium Bedding Substrate Snake and Lizard Litter, 8 Quart

I love this for our Hognoses who love to dig. It holds it shape. We do mix it with a little of the regular aspen as well ( that is not chipped) .

So I've used this for quite a while for garter snakes and it's extremely low dust, if not no dust at all, it's absorbent, and the small chips are awesome for picking out little poops or clumps of urates which garters do frequently and are usually more than one in an enclosure. It doesn't hold tunnels in my experience but my garters will burrow around in it when they get the urge, and they seem more inclined to use hides or hide in some leafy areas when they want privacy anyway.I also use Zoo Med Aspen snake bedding for reasons I'll get to in a second, but I really much prefer these Zilla chips. With these smaller chips you waste less spot cleaning and it reminds me almost of clumping cat litter. And like zero dust in my experience. I find the Zoo Med Aspen to be a bit dusty. Really fine dust you might not notice but if you're tossing some in an enclosure with lights, look close to the lights and its like a fog of super fine dust. That being said it doesn't linger long and doesn't recur once everything is settled in the enclosure. And it never bothered my allergies or anything, and never caused problems with my snakes, so it's not horrible or anything. And the Zoo Med Aspen will hold tunnels to some extent if you have a species that is more into burrowing.The main thing keeping me from not using this Zilla stuff exclusively is when I have baby garters, or an occasional wild rescue, or rehomed vagabond of questionable upbringing, they will often only eat nightcrawlers. And these more fine Zilla chips will stick to the worms like sprinkles on a cupcake, a complete mess, and get ingested by the snakes. The babies need the worms cut up and eventually transition to cut up pinkies which are both an even more gooey mess. And to be fair when that happened it never caused any impaction issues, they seem to just easily digest what bits stick to their food. But I see it as less than an ideal situation, and with babies it's such a mess with their cut up food it's really not even an option. Most people keep them on paper towels. I do that initially but like to get them in a more homey setup long before they're eating like adults. And you can try to use dishes, plates or keep some big flat stones or other enrichment around hoping they eat there, but garters will sometimes grab food and run all over the place like they have a screw loose, or grab the food and kick it into reverse and back up around the tank the whole time they're eating, dragging the food through everything. And the Zoo Med Aspen being bigger, longer chips sticks to the food less, and is much more likely to fall off or get knocked off the food as they're getting it in their pie hole so they don't ingest nearly as much.My more mature and captive raised guys that reliably eat whole pinkies or fuzzies and occasionally silversides are for one *usually* less nutty with running around with their food dragging it through the substrate, although one or two sometimes do, but even if they do the pinkies and silversides I can dab off with a paper towel so they're not wet, so if someone does get a little goofy with the food the food is much less sticky and much less a wood chip magnet issue.So I much prefer this Zilla stuff overall and use it for my more distinguished noodles. But my cringe babies and "I'm sorry, I only eat gooey worms" types get the Zoo Med stuff, which is also good stuff. It's popular for a reason. And it does depend on your particular needs and setup. But I do think this Zilla aspen deserves way more recognition than I'm aware of it getting. It's like the little known sleeper hit of substrates.

I've only ever used aspen shavings for my 11 year old Sand Boa, since he was a baby. He's done great, but I just thought I'd try aspen chips to change things up a little and try something new. This is the best litter and will be my new choice from now on. Aspen shavings are a great choice, no complaints. Low dust, almost no odor, very clean, and for Sand Boas in particular, it's very important that they be able to borrow in their bedding, as they spend the majority of their lives underground in the wild. These aspen chips are just a step up in my opinion. They have ZERO dust, and no odor that I've noticed. They are just as easy for him to burrow in, and I've noticed that these chips hold the heat from the heat lamps I use to keep his cage warm. I don't like looking at big animals in little cages, so even though he is only 18 inches long, and might get to only 2 feet, tops, his cage takes up an entire wall of the room he's in (I've actually done the math. Scaled down, he has a bigger house than I do lol) so it takes a lot of wattage to keep the cage at the ideal temperature. I've noticed, since switching to these aspen chips, his cage is naturally about 4-5 degrees warmer than with the shavings. In fact, I'm running lower wattage heat lamps now which is saving me money, not only with the lamps themselves, but on my electric bill. I can tell he likes the chips more, too. They are more of a sand/pebbly texture, and I've noticed him sitting on top of them more soaking up the warmth, which was rare to ever see him fully unburrowed with the shavings as they didn't hold same surface warmth.

I own a mouse and a snake (not in the same container obviously) and this is a great option for safe bedding for them both. Saves me money so I’m not buying two different products. It does kind of get everywhere though as it’s pretty small and lightweight. Also hides smell fantastically.

I have a Kenyan sand boa and she's been on this stuff since she was the size of a pencil and Now she's 12 years old. I don't think I could do anything else. Spot cleaning is so easy. And the size bag lasts a pretty long time for her and her 40 gallon enclosure. I love these because they don't kick up a lot of dust which leads to the dreaded respiratory illnesses which are never easy. And I can just put these in I don't have to bake them or freeze them or worry about anything it's just easy. Well she can't really make any tunnels with these I still like them because she doesn't care about making tunnels anyway so they work just fine. And the bag is big you know so I don't have to worry about buying it very often I just stick it in the freezer and it lasts forever. If you're worried about a small snake like this tunneling you can just throw some cardboard tubes in there underneath the substrate. they'll go through them just fine.

I have a Kenyan sand boa who lost his eye. He was on bio active substrate, but it began getting stuck in his eye socket. He hates normal aspen shavings, but loves this! He burrows as normal, whereas with normal aspen he’d just stay on top and wouldn’t burrow. It lasts quite a while, is easy to clean, isn’t sharp enough to damage his eye further, and is a good price for the 24 quart bag! It sometimes smells a bit strongly of wood at first, so I like to air out the bag for a day before using it, but the scent goes away by then.

This product works great for my ball python and doesn't leave alot of dust like most beddings

Great product and great price use it for my snakes 🐍