Impactions - Post 'Em Up!

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

I stand corrected, Im very surprised that I have yet to stumble across the subject being a member here for so long... My normal deffinition of impaction though is a (normally by a lizard) Build up of substrate over time blocking the digestion track, causeing pressure on the spine and eventually leading to paralization, if they live long enough for that to happen.

Ignore my first post everyone, my bad :oops: My train of thoughts were of that, not just eating one big peice.

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No bad - we all frequent different threads.

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

No bad - we all frequent different threads.

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Fed on bedding since the beginning of time. Keep and breed sand boas on sand. Beardies and Leos on sand. Most baby beardies I keep on paper just because it's easier to clean but when I had the store we kept hundreds on sand. I think I verified on one or two that they ate sand and it got stuck. There was always grains of sand in the poop, but no problems for most of them. Never had a problem with a sand boa of any size. Going on generation 5 in sand.

I haven't had a problem with impaction and every single reptile I own is on loose substrate.

With lizards I'm a bit more edgy about, I don't house smaller lizards on a fine, loose substrate. My adult Beardie is housed on sand since she's old enough for me to feel comfortable with her on it. Though when she picks the crickets up with her tongue I don't ever see her swallow any substrate except for a couple pieces.

The Ball pythons, KSB, BCI, & Kingsnakes stay on aspen, Dumeril's & Bloods on cypress.

Heard this many time; never once have I had to deal with this issue when I kept snakes years ago, nor in the past few years since I got back into it. I'm sure in the wild they get mouthfuls of substrate with every meal and do just fine. I have definitely noticed that reptile keepers are pretty over protective (I'm not saying that in a bad way) of their animals, and will hear advice and start spreading it as biblical truth. So my guess is that partially the case here. Maybe a few isolated incidents, and then the advice spread through the community.

I don't believe impaction is a problem in snakes. Their digestive systems are tough enough to handle foreign objects.

I have also never even heard of a snake being impacted from eating substrate. I have had snakes get a nice big mouthful of substrate, swallow it all and be just fine.

I think it is generally more of a problem in Lizards since they eat so many more smaller meals compared to snakes. They have more opportunities to get a mouthful of substrate therefor there is a higher chance of it leading to impaction.

I have no experience with impaction in snakes, but I have rescued leopard geckos that were impacted with sand. This is usually a symptom of other problems though - the primary ones being dehydration and improper temperatures..

I think that we often times underestimate snakes. They aren't dumb. I've had a ball python attempt to eat a mouse that, sticky with saliva, was just about as much aspen shavings as it was mouse. She noticed this very quickly and spit it out. They definitely can handle a good amount of substrate in their intestines, and when it's too much, they can usually take care of themselves.



With lizards impaction is a whole separate thing. Beardies, geckos, and most other insectivores are easily impacted when on any loose substrate (especially calcium sand due to clumping) because they are not made to handle it. Contrary to popular belief, there is really no loose sand in inland Australia; the earth is hard packed and cannot be ingested by lizards.