Can I feed my snake in tank with Forest Floor Bedding?

My new Stingerbee from Garreck Demeyer will finally arrive tomorrow! I'm jumping with excitement as this will be my first snake ever :)

I've read a lot about feeding in the enclosure vs feeding outside of it and I'm hoping someone can answer my question? Will swallowing some of the bedding hurt him? (it's the Forest Floor bedding by zoomed I think). Should I put cardboard down over top of it to feed him on? I've a a 36x18x16 terrarium that's pretty cluttered so he doesn't feel super stressed and exposed, so there isn't a whole lot of room in there to begin with...

Thank you for the help!

Typically, the less you mess with them around feeding time, the better off they'll be. For me, this means open tub, insert rat, watch strike, repeat. If a little substrate goes down with the rat, no big deal.

In your case, I'd get your little man all nestled in for about a week or so and then feed him in the enclosure. Don't worry about doing anything fancy with separate enclosures, laying down a placemat, etc. If all goes well, he'll reward you for your patience by nailing that rat the first go 'round and you can report back here about how much fun it was. :)

Good luck with him!

Thank you! I've had everything set up for a week now. I can't wait!!

When my snakes were babies, I used to feed them on paper plates in the cage. I would just remove the water dish and lay the plate down and then dangle the rat over the plate and they would come out and grab it. Now they are larger, I don't worry so much about a little substrate being eaten. I use aspen and I've seen them eat a piece here and there and its fine.

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Originally Posted by stingermom

Thank you! I've had everything set up for a week now. I can't wait!!

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Perfect. I did the same when I first started. I was so paranoid about temps/humidity/anything being even the slightest bit off, I held off on getting a BP until I had it just right. I'm glad to hear more people doing the same - it's SO much better for the animals! :D

I lay paper in the cage over the forest floor I don't what my babies eating any kind of Substrate.



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