Zilla Snake And Lizard Aspen Litter Substrate

A good choice for beginner reptiles that you’d find at the local pet store. Easy to scoop and sift out pet waste and is absorbent for liquids. Fairly easy cleanup as well, there is very little wood dust when changing bedding. When refilling just pour and even out by hand there’s no real risk of splinters in my experience.

Looks like and works just as well as the other brand, but was less expensive. This is the best substrate I’ve found thus far for my corn snake and ball python. Does a good job absorbing wetness, easy to spot-clean, looks good, safe if ingested, no toxic vapors or smell, and the snakes seem to enjoy burrowing (if it’s deep enough). Aside from the cost, which is what it is, it’s nearly perfect for (non-giant) snakes and I’m sure many other reptiles as well.

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.

bag weak

Great product and great price use it for my snakes 🐍

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.