Help for the forum

I just experienced the scariest moment of my short BP career. Loki accidentally got a chunk of coconut husk stuck in his mouth after feeding. He was unable to free it from his mouth and was unable to swallow it. I managed to get it out, but I was hoping an advanced keeper on here could post a thread dealing with situations like this.

I had no idea how to hold him to help him out. How to hold him firmly yet not hurt him. Just something that will help newbies handle their snakes in situations where they need complete control over the snake, without hurting the snake.

I was hoping it could just become a sticky or something.

Every snake owner should know this, not only for substrate stuck in mouth, but for general mouth inspections.

hold snake firmly with hand at base of skull, using free hand, use a Q-Tip, to gently open the snakes mouth.

It is easier if youu have an extra set of hands, especially with bigr snakes.

Hope this helps

Opening the mouth is pretty easy. But can be kinda scary for someone new. But do it just like llovelace said. With a BP, you can just use a few fingers to grip the head. I like to support the rest of the snakes body on either my lap or my forearms. Since they are a heavy bodied snake, being held by there head can be stressful on their spinal column. Then a q-tip or anything of that nature, a smooth plastic pen even, can be used to gently open the mouth. You basically just slid it in sideways. It doesnt require alot of pressure and the snake will sometimes open its jaws just because it is irritating and is instinct.

With herps, its best to be bold, than to be afraid of them. They are extremely resilient. That said, being too rough can cause harm. Just be gentle at first and once you get the hang of it you'll be fine.

That's pretty much the only reason why I use a feeding bin.

It's one of the reasons why I quit using aspen and am now using paper towels for all of my snakes.

One of my large females struck at a rat and missed only to shove a stick of aspen into it's throat.
Trying to remove a piece of wood from a 2000 gram female that's trashing around with wood jammed into her throat is no easy task.
I don't miss using aspen much :P

Thanks for the help guys, like I said, I fixed my problem fine. I was hoping an admin or another advanced user could post a sticky onto the normal husbandry page for other new keepers to refer to