Bayou Boy All Natural Reptile Bedding Bag, 8-Quart

Let me just say, it takes a LOT to motivate me to write a negative review!I'm not new to herpetological care--have had snakes and or lizards on and off for the last 15 or so years. I build custom, high-grade, humidity and temperature-controlled cages for my animals and I keep them clean. I know how to take care of these animals.So...I ran across this product on Amazon and for some reason, I decided to give it a try. I've used a number of other substrates over the years but for quite a while I've been using the repti-bark you can pick up at any big-box pet store. Generally, I like that product, but I saw this, read the claims that it aids with water absorption/humidity and saw how much you get for the price and it sounded good. So, I ordered it to put into my 7-year-old rainbow boa's cageThat was a mistake...About two weeks after thoroughly cleaning my boa's 4x2 cage and dumping a bunch of this stuff into it, it was suddenly INUNDATED with small black flying bugs--they looked like gnats. These were not mites or the minuscule white things that unfortunately sometimes come with other substrates that live off the moisture/wood product. These were larger, flying bugs that were happy to leave the cage when they could and take up residence in my house. Unfortunately, I waited a couple weeks, trying to use a hand-vac to capture any of the ones I saw in the cage.This was a mistake, also.About a month in, I woke up one morning to find the cage was CRAWLING with thousands of these things. Some major "hatch" must have taken place and without warning, the small bug problem turned into a HUGE bug problem It was gross and VERY disconcerting. As I said, I've been at snake and lizard keeping for years and have NEVER had anything like this happen.Anyway, I went through the nasty task of cleaning out a 4' x 2' cage filled with bugs, bleached the entire thing, waited a few days, then filled it with pre-baked repti-bark and presto...no bugs.This was a terrible experience brought on completely by Bayou Boy Natural Reptile Bedding. Avoid this stuff!Oh yeah, and the other problem with the stuff is that it is extremely light weight and has very low density. This makes it pile up and move around very easily under the body weight of whatever critter you have. This means that the poop/pee gets covered/hidden very easily. I found myself having to search constantly to find whatever the snake left behind...ugh!

Purchased this little/shavings for our land tortoises. They love to bury themselves in it, while they don't eat it. This large amount will keep us supplied for quite a while, even tho we have a very large tank. Glad I purchased it.

Best reptile bedding ever

Works well, and easy to clean.

I have 3 bearded dragons and I've used many products and this is the only one that works. the product does not leave a smell and it helps get rid of the smell of the feces. a little dusty when you pour into cage but it is not dusty in use.

Great bedding. A little dustier then I would prefer at first. Which is why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. The dust does settle within a day or two. I would not recommend it for pets with respiratory issues.

My russian tortoise loves moving this stuff around. It's great for keeping his messes contained and easy to clean up.

I used this for litter in my pet rats litterboxes. After a full week between cleans, this litter still had no smell and was completely dry. The only reason I removed it from the cage was because it was full of little poops (which it doesn’t fully hide the smell of, but I wasn’t expecting it to). No ammonia smell. Mildly dusty but not more than any other bedding I’ve used. It does get flung from the shallow litterboxes fairly easily, the deep one is okay. I was so sad when I saw that this was unavailable as it hasn’t been my favourite small animal bedding so far.Note: would not fully recommend for areas with little ventilation. It was used in a hide made from a Tupperware container with only a small exit hole and I would say that the smell in that small place would irritate my pets lungs after more than a few days.

okay but dusty