I have recently have had the experience of using Aspen Bedding in my Ball Python cages and went back to Paper after 4 months. If you are going to use Aspen by it at a local Pet shop that sells pretreated bundles. If you are a breeder or have a couple of Ball Pythons and by from the feed store or wholesale warehouse make sure you treat your Aspen bedding. Wood mites are a big problem and although they do not harm your snake they will take over your snakes enclosure in a matter of weeks. The convenience of just spot cleaning with the Aspen vs Paper, cleaning the whole cage once a week goes lope sided once the mites have invaded. You will have to treat for wood mites for a whole 7-10 days! This includes taken every square inch of your enclosure and spraying them with a mite killer spray as well as treating your snake. Even though wood mites do not attack your snake they will be all over it which looks just gross. I myself own over a hundred Ball Pythons and this really took a lot of time and good knowledge of the mites to totally eradicate. I myself will stick to good old recycle newspaper it may not look natural, but it will definitely save you time and headaches if you do own a large population of snakes. If you have wood mite problems please let me know and I will give you specific details on how and what you can use to destroy these mites.