quick help!

[cweimer4]

I just fed my ball python, max. I have aspen bedding and he went to strike and missed and got like 2 or 3 slits of aspen in his mouth. at first it looked like he wasnt gunna eat cuz they were stuck in there. He was fiddling around with it and couldnt get it out but instead of trying to get them out he just struck at the mouse with them in there and is now eating. is that gunna be a problem if he digests that stuff or anything? sorta freakin out.

[bsash]

I have never had a problem with substrate being ingested, but always keep an eye out just in case.

[fire-eyes]

I remember the first time this happened to me, I did panic. Panic is unwarranted, snakes get all sorts of things in their mouths in the wild when eating, their digestive system can deal with it easily, especially such a small amount.

It would be a concern if it was a big pile of it in the snakes mouth. Regardless, keep an eye on it for a while, more so to calm yourself down

[stormshadow]

So many people worry about this. Snakes have the strongest digestive enzymes going. They can even digest bone, hair etc. A little bit of substrate is not going to hurt a snake at all. Eating substrate happens all the time in wild and captive

[WingedWolfPsion]

A snake's digestive tract is a fairly straight shot compared with many other animals, and they can pass some decent sized pieces if need be, so it's pretty unlikely that a wood shaving will cause a blockage. If they ate a whole bunch of them at once, it might.

[RichsBallPythons]

Snakes digest bone with out a problem, Small amounts of bedding will be completely digested with the meal.

[DJ_Bizarre]

I am going to agree with everyone up top, i was scared when my snake ate substrate, most of the time while coiled ill take my tongs and gently tug aspen out of his mouth while biting a mouse. But he has eaten a piece or two and he digests food just fine. Unless yoyr bp eats like a mouseworth of it (lol), i wouldnt worry at all

[Dixie Serpent Den]

It wont have a problem. I agree with everyone else. These snakes are a lot tuffer than most think.

[WingedWolfPsion]

They do digest bone...but they will not digest a wood chip. They are not termites.
However, it will pass through their system, most likely broken into pieces, without incident. Just make sure they don't eat a bunch at once, or eat anything bulkier (like a big old bark chip instead of a wood shaving).