I did something stupid...

...and am sharing my stupidity hoping others will learn from it. I had two leftover live jumbo mice after feeding the BPs today (first time with jumbo mice and I bought too many) so I decided to feed them to Wee Nake, and tossed the first one in her cage, on her fresh bed of fluffy aspen. I don't know what went wrong, but she missed, and grabbed a huge mouthful of aspen, then immediately struck at it again, which implanted the aspen in her mouth.

I am very thankful for several things tonight 1) I own, and remembered to put on the heavy leather gloves before picking her up (first time she's bit me, was angry/food frenzied) 2) I live 500 yards from my local reptile store which has a kind and experienced staff 3) she was mostly angry rather than actually injured.

They were able to use a little tool thingy to open her mouth and get the 4 splinters of wood out that were stuck. Luckily none were very deep, though I'll be keeping a close eye out for infection over the next couple days and ordering a set of those little tools. I will be feeding her in the bath tub from now on also.

Sorry you had a bad experience - but Im glad it all worked out :)

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Originally Posted by Badgemash

I will be feeding her in the bath tub from now on also.

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lol...sorry...that made me chuckle. I've heard of people feeding in spare tanks, spare tubs, cardboard boxes, etc...but never in the bath tub...

lol I fed my monitor in the bath tub a couple of times. You could always switch to using a paper towel as substrate... That way you can be sure nothing will get in anyones mouth ;)

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Originally Posted by sho220

lol...sorry...that made me chuckle. I've heard of people feeding in spare tanks, spare tubs, cardboard boxes, etc...but never in the bath tub...

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I can't forget where I put the bathtub (good boxes always seem to disappear), and it's pretty easy to clean afterward.

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Originally Posted by Melody

lol I fed my monitor in the bath tub a couple of times. You could always switch to using a paper towel as substrate... That way you can be sure nothing will get in anyones mouth ;)

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I think I will, my whole BP collection is on fancy paper, but for some reason I've kept Wee on aspen. Really going to have to reasses my "logic" lately.

This happened to my boa as well. I had him on reptibark though.

Ever since that happened EVERYONE is on paper towel. Even those in display cages.

It almost gave me a heart attack when it happened.

Or just put paper or paper towels over the aspen when you feed ;)

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Another option is to put news paper down in the cage a few hour before you feed. I do it and it works very well. The snake usually feed from a perch right over the top of it. However I see you are feeding LIVE which changes things a bit. I know in the wild these animals ingest all sorts of things and do fine yet like you I totally prefer to avoid it and take extra steps.

That said, instead of making your nice looking setup into another news print jungle, maybe consider coconut husk. It's as fine as sand and will not cause the issues chunks of wood will.

IF you can somehow switch to frozen thawed even batter but that may be totally one of those non options.

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do but feeding is an enjoyable experience and watching it happen in a natural setting is cool IMO.

Try the coconut husk, I think you'll be pleased.

Glad it worked out.

Good thread!!

I've used coco husk, and a misdirected strike can certainly give a snake a mouthful of substrate. No injuries there though, Magnus was just a very crabby snake until we managed to scrape all of it out of his teeth. Now I feed on a paper towel to avoid it. :)

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