ball swallowing aspen when eating

This hasn't happend to me but a friend of mine was telling me about his snakes and he told me that he uses aspen as bedding and one time his ball swallowed aspen while eating and he didnt know it.. but it didnt defacate in 4 months or so and he took it to the vet and had to get it surgery to remove the aspen that was blocking it. Is this something to worry about when using aspen? i was just wondering if this has happend to anyone else and if maybe i should switch to newspaper or something.. thanks :)

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Originally Posted by BaLLPAddICT

This hasn't happend to me but a friend of mine was telling me about his snakes and he told me that he uses aspen as bedding and one time his ball swallowed aspen while eating and he didnt know it.. but it didnt defacate in 4 months or so and he took it to the vet and had to get it surgery to remove the aspen that was blocking it. Is this something to worry about when using aspen? i was just wondering if this has happend to anyone else and if maybe i should switch to newspaper or something.. thanks :)

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Yea i have a friend who is a herpetologist that has done necropsies on snakes and monitors kept on aspen and said that he has seen splinters through the stomach wall. and in his words "do they normally stay on splinters in the wild?" i am going to switch soon to something not so sharp and pointy.

~mike

I think it's always a good idea to keep your snake's food separated from the substrate. When feeding, spread out some paper towels or newspaper or cardboard over the substrate in the area where feeding will happen. I try to hold the prey item near the opposite side of the spread-out paper from the snake, to encourage him to come forward, so the strike and coil back will all be over the paper.

When swallowing is done, throw the paper away and you're all set.

everyone likes eating over a lovely tablecloth, eh? :)

is it ok if the eat a little but of coconut substrate? does it pass easier through them?

tell your friend to try taking the snake out to about a 10-20 gallon tank and put some carpet or a piece of fabric (or even just on the tank bottom) and do the feeding in there.

let me know how that works.

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Originally Posted by snake_0323

tell your friend to try taking the snake out to about a 10-20 gallon tank and put some carpet or a piece of fabric (or even just on the tank bottom) and do the feeding in there.

let me know how that works.

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yeah thats what hes doing now, when i feed my snakes i have another tank which is good for looking and if im feeding live, the rat or mouse wont be able to get out.. im using aspen there too.. you think i should switch to another substrate with that? thanks