Hey just a quick note that if your soaking bowl has a wide surface area and it’s in the middle like you said, the humidity should be fine! 
. But you will have to fill it more often since it will evaporate quicker.
It’s so great that you care about your animals so much! 
I’m on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, so our humidity levels are similar. I use aspen pretty much exclusively for my corns. (Exceptions for quarantine or the occasional health concern over the years.) I find that household humidity here is generally fine for the snakes. This includes the ones who are in glad display tanks. I do give their enclosures a couple of spritzes when they’re in shed, but that’s sufficient. I’ve tried various things over the years but aspen seems to meet our needs best.
There are a lot of different brands available. Some are very finely shredded. Some are chunkier. I use different brands/textures for different ages. The prices vary, but I’ve recently discovered that Tractor Supply sells giant bags of very finely shredded aspen as horse bedding for under $8. It says it’s only for horses, but that seems to be wording to cover themselves in some way. It’s not noticeably different from the official pet bedding.
Oh my goodness Caryl God bless you for that information! The finely shredded ZooMed large bags of aspen are so expensive and even though I only have 22 snakes I spend a fortune on bedding. 8.00 bucks is a Godsend! 
I know right!? 25-30 bucks for a bag a shredded aspen that isn’t even that big is highway robbery. And thank you @caryl!
Yup I’m with ya on that! @caryl Caryl you rock! 
Just to be safe, it would work for my scaleless Texas rat snake right?
This is what I use for our rats. It works great for them.
I don’t have rat snakes, but from what I have been reading on scaleless snakes, it does seem to work just fine. Some actually state it is all they use for scaleless. (again, not my opinion, just what I have seen posted)
yup!! He always finds a way to come out by the time im asleep so i have not noticed him go into it yet, but even then he gets a soak once every week. Apparently thats controversial but he loves soaks, i dont even have to put a lid on it because he’ll just stay in the container and just ‘swim’ around. Also, last time, i got a bowel movement out of it so woohoo, less tank cleaning for me lol.
@caryl Ahhh, yup!! I saw it pretty recently!! I have a ton of aspen left so i wasn’t gonna buy it but i was so thankful because i’m hoping that the aspen works out for him 
i stay away from the ‘made for reptiles’ stuff because i find that most of it is the same as what you’ll get elsewhere. Also heard from a guy that you cant use anything other than aspen because everything else ‘gets in their eyes’ 
i plan to go bioactive next year lol…not to mention if you cant put them on anything other than aspen, then original bp’s in africa must have constant issues with things in their eyes, lol…like come on, man…
Y’all are more than welcome for the tip on aspen! Not all the local stores have it in stock, but they should be able to get it shipped to your store. I actually ended up with my last purchase being shipped to the house but I’m pretty sure that was a fluke. This is what the bag looks like.
Wow, that’s one of those things that always make me think, did that person actually think about what they were saying? 
Quite apart from the idea that snakes have protective scales over their eyes and no eyelids to trap anything in their eyes, there’s that whole nature thing. Haven’t really noticed wide swaths of the world being covered in aspen shavings, thereby being rendered snake-safe… 
You can use aspen, cocoa, cypress, peat moss, dirt, etc. They all have trade offs.
Thrift stores generally have a pile of room humidifiers for $5-10 or you could put a 10 gallon aquarium in the room if you have space and fill it with pothos plants. That’s an underutilized method imo.
i actually plan on doing this when i go bioactive next year!! going to be filling a 240 gal with devils ivy, prayer plants, haworthia, etc.
exactly!! He said that i shouldn’t use play sand in a bioactive substrate mix, either, for that reason lol…like dude play sand is pretty darn close to natural sand in the dirt and soil. I’ll be doing a 65% top soil, 10% play sand, and the rest coco fiber mix for that. They don’t live on aspen shreddings in the wild, man!
I would personally do 50% topsoil 20% play sand 15% cypress mulch 10% moss 5% charcoal. Then mix in about 15-25% of the total substrate worth of leaves
Sorry forgot to add why it will work better 
- the coco fiber provides no value to the substrate as isopods don’t benefit from it as it contains no nutrients. It also gets complicated easily and makes it so the substrate doesn’t get much aeration and can lead to issues
oooo awesome thanks for the idea!! I’m pretty new to bioactive viv’s so any suggestions are greatly appreciated and i wanna get as much research down before i start on it
I live in an area where the humidity is normally around 20%. I had a lot of humidity struggles with my BP at first. The big thing that helped me was to make a humid hide. The way I did it is I pilfered a large old Tupperware from my mom, cut a small hole in the top lid that she could fit through, sanded the edges so it was smooth, and stuffed it with damp spaghnum moss. I check mine weekly and rewet if it’s too dry. I replace the moss/clean the entire bin roughly every two months. She loves it, especially when she’s shedding, and she has perfect sheds every time.
You’ll have to post some pictures of your bioactive when you get it set up. It sounds like it’ll be really cool, and I bet your BP will love it. Seems like you’re doing great with your BP! They’re amazing snakes.
Ok I’m lost Don. For what purpose is the aquarium filled with pothos? 
That is waaaaay too complicated for me! I would have to watch a diy video on YouTube to put that all together!
I have made humid hides like that in the past! Tupperware containers work great! Also you can use the fish bowls with the 2 sides that are flat and make a humid “den” by adding the damp sphagnum moss and piling fake plants on top of it and around it. I did that with my leopard gecko. 
The pothos will take over and grow like crazy. Once you’ve got a good cluster of it, it will help raise the humidity. Works even better if you use clay beads instead if soil and keep a healthy amount of water in it.
