is useing coconut fibers as a substrate in my bps viv ok?

Question
QUESTION: ok so heres the thing, ive rescued a ball from an abandoned apartment. hes having really bad sheds and i cant seem to keep the humidity up in the cage. my husband uses coconut fibers in his scorpion tank and i was wondering if i can use it in the viv to keep the humidity up.  i know it does stay damp for quite a while, so will it cause scale rot? and at the moment he eats in his home so if ingested will it cause impaction? hope you can get back to me soon. Thankx, Bobbi

ANSWER: Hey Bobbi,

You can use the coconut, but there is the chance of scale rot if you keep it to moist.

The best thing to do is use aspen and buy a piece of 1/4 plastic. A sheet that is as wide as the tank top is deep and about 2/3 the length. Drill some holes in it, somewhere around thirty too forty will do. This will allow air to flow and still hold the humidity level as well as the temps. You may need to adjust the temp after the first couple days.

Hope this helps,
Eric

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: a little more info for you... he was left abandoned in an apartment for the better part of 6 months, had mites which ive taken care of, and was really really under weight. ive gotten him eating again, but he still doesnt like to be handled. is aspen easy to clean? because ive heard it can be messy. will the aspen cause a problem when feeding him on it? right now hes on astro turf, but as i said before we''re having bad humidity probs.
thankx for your help, Bobbi

Answer
Hey Bobbi,

The first thing you need to do is get that turf out. I woke up one morning to a dead snake because of this stuff. It catches their teeth and hold on forcing the snake to whip around. That day I went and bought Aspen an never looked back. It is up to you on what you want to use, just do some research.

The Aspen is easy to clean. Because it is light in color the poop is easy to see.

Eric