Fed live for the first time. Ingested some substrate....

[MikeJuggles]

So after much thought I decided to just save myself the hassle and feed my female normal in her tank. I also decided to give her live prey. No particular reason other than self interest in seeing how she would eat in nature. I still will be offering her f/t rodents most of the time.
Anyways, I keep her on coconut husk bedding, and while she had no trouble dispatching and eating the mouse, she did manage to swallow a very small piece of the substrate. Is this a major concern?

Also, six weeks and still no shed. Hasn't missed a meal, is pooping, and seems otherwise alert and healthy.

[The Serpent Merchant]

A small amount of substrate isn't a problem. Just try to minimize substrate ingestion.

I've had one of mine go 8 weeks when he was 6 months old, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just make sure that the temperatures/humidity levels are good and you offer a rodent that weight 15% of the snakes body weight every 7 days (every 4 or 5 days if she is less than a year old)

[DellaF]

A little substrate shouldn't hurt. Mine ingest some every now and again. They are fine. Don't get to worried about the shedding she will shed eventually. I remember when I got my first BP seemed like he would never shed. A friend of mine kept asking me if he had shed yet. I was beginning to think something was wrong with him. Then one day I looked at him and he was dull as could be

[DooLittle]

As far as the shed goes, I wouldn't worry. Younger snakes seem to shed more than adults, imo. As long as husbandry is spot on, and he is eating and growing, he will shed. Small amount of substrate shouldn't hurt, they can break down bones. And I am sure they consume stuff in the wild and are fine.

[notmyfault]

My tip here for the substrate ingestion problem is, whenever I feed my snakes, I always have a piece of paper towel handy. So when the snake strikes and coils I place the paper down over the substrate and move the snake with the prey on to the paper towel. This minimizes the amount of substrate ingested. As stated above, a little substrate won't hurt your snake, as long as it isn't a recurring problem then he should be good.

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[FrankieCarbone]

once my BP took alot of substrate with his meal, funny, i noticed in his next poop it came out just how it went in (aspen) i dont know about thicker bedding though, might be a different story, but i havent had any issues. I also feed live and he always take some sort of aspen with his meal, and he always has some on the side of his mouth too, which he rubs and yawns away.

[Skiploder]

There is nothing to worry about. They can handle eating substrate.

For three decades my snakes have gotten a healthy dose of substrate with every meal and I have never had a single problem. Aspen, pine, fir, you name it.

I dare anyone that tells you different to present paperwork from a vet in which ingested substrate was the cause of any health issues.

Paperwork. Not some half-assed guess by a hack vet. Not some regurging of internet voodoo. Paperwork in which an obstruction was removed, examined and then the lab conclusively was able to prove it was caused by substrate.

[SlitherinSisters]

I would put some newspaper or paper towels down before feeding just to be safe. I guess I don't know if it's true that bedding can become impacted, but I sure don't want to find out myself.

[MikeJuggles]

Well, thanks everyone. I really wasn't worried about it, but this community seems very knowledgeable and so friendly and helpful, I just wanted to be sure.
I have a 5 year old leopard gecko that lives on crushed walnut shell bedding, and eats some pretty much every time she goes for a cricket, meal worm, or super worm. She poops every couple days, and impaction has never been an issue.
Me being fairly new to snakes though, I didn't know entirely if they were more at risk of such things.