Yawning a lot after feeding?

[Snake Dave]

Hey everyone

I just fed my 2 and a half year old female, Medusa. After she ate it there seemed to be a lot of yawning. When I say a lot, I mean like 20 times in the space of 5 minutes, ranging from huge gaping yawns to little 'lip-smacking' ones. Could this be an RI? Or is it simply her re-setting her jaw. I haven't seen her yawn like this any other times when she's been up, apart from once, but I think she was just yawning for the sake of it.

I also need some advice on my substrate. I keep her on Repti-Bark because it suited the look of the tank and seemed fine to use with her because of her age. But I'm worried about the risk of impaction since I strike-feed inside the tank. She dragged the rat into her water bowl, and I saw that quite a lot of bark had come off the rat, but there was still a few pieces on there as she was eating it, and I'm not entirely sure if it all came off in the end. Should I be worried? I think I may switch her to newspaper, or if not, should I feed her outside the tank?

If so, how should I go about it? Should I take her out, put her in the box, strike-feed, then leave her? How long should I leave her before picking her up again?

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

David

[Royalherper]

The yawning after feeding is probably her resetting her jaw. Does she yawn alot when she hasn't just fed? Do you hear any weasing coming from her? As far as the substrate, I have used aspen for quite awhile. Sometimes they swallow some. Its going to happen. They seem to pass it ok. I'm not familiar with reptile bark. I'm sure they will pass that too. If I'm wrong, someone will chime in and tell me so I'm sure.

[catzeye21138]

My sister uses reptile bark, it is rougher then aspen. Mine yawns a lot after feeding too, everytime. But never any wheezing or discharge. I'm pretty sure it is just resetting it's jaw because I keep it on newspaper and paper towels. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[Snake Dave]

Okay thank you both, and no she doesn't yawn a lot when she hasn't just eaten, I've only ever seen her do it once and there's no wheezing or mucus or any other RI symptoms.

So you don't think that keeping and feeding her on Repti-Bark would be a problem?

[Lokua]

there should not be any problems with feeding on repi-bark. though if your worried i would suggest placing her inside a paper bag then feeding the mouse

[Swingline0.0.1]

Of course, there is an entire library worth of debate about how and where to feed, but swallowing substrate and possible impaction is the main reason I feed out of the enclosure. Also, I wouldn't want to clean up all the mouse pee/poo and occasional blood. I would want to clean it up right away, which defeats the whole don't-disturb-them point of feeding in the enclosure in the first place.

I feed in paper boxes (as in what a case of printer paper comes in, not a box made of paper ), and if there is any rodent goo or whatever I just use a new box the next time. My BP has never had any problems with regurge or anything from being moved the 4 feet back to his enclosure- I just wait until he's swallowed completely and is cruising around... actually, he's gotten where he'll get out of the box himself if you let him.

Luckily I've not had any experience with RIs, but I would watch her and have her checked if she keeps up the yawning... my understanding is that a BP can have an infection without showing much in the way of symptoms.

Hope this helps.