digesting aspen

I understand that BP's have and can easily digest aspen if accidently swallowed with their prey. However, I have seen contradicting evidence about corn snakes. I was wondering has anyone had any issues with their corns digesting aspen accidently? I normally lay down a paper towel inside their viv, this time though one dragged it through the aspen and I noticed a small piece was ingested. I do believe I may start feeding outside the container to prevent this happening again. Any comments??

I am not sure about the ability of corns to digest aspen, but they are usually such good eaters,(pigs sometimes!) feeding in a separate feeding container should not be a problem at all, as well as eliminate the risk of ingesting aspen while feeding.

Thankfully it was a small peice. I'll keep an eye out and watch for impaction. Don't think there is anythin else I can do now.

DISCLAIMER: This post is based purely on personal logic and thought process and not on any factual study.


I think ingesting a small piece of substrate should not hurt your snake. I'm sure there are exceptions if a snake gets ahold of a particularly sharp piece that goes down the wrong way, or something like that.....but in general, it should be fine. Corn snakes are digesting whole rodents just like bp's do.

And in the wild, there is no one laying down newspapers beneath the mouse they are hunting. The mice don't run into a clean plastic house and wait to be eaten. If ingesting bits of leaves and dirt and twigs were as harmful as some fear, then I don't see how snakes would even survive in the wild.

Those were my thoughts exactly. God forbid in the "wild" any snake would accidlently swallow dirt, tree bark, pebbles whatever... The amount of impacted snakes would be extraordinary really, but I thought I should post to be on the safe side. :D

I know this was a while ago, but saw it & thought i would add to it with my experience.


My youngest corn who is a fully grown adult, swallowed a tiny piece of aspen with his 1st feed with me. After some time I found he was passing blood in his stools. I visited the vet straight away, who did blood tests to check his liver & kidneys...the tests came back normal. As an extra precaution he carried out what is called a 'Flagyl' which I was told is a small soft tube that they pass through the snakes mouth & into the stomach & use a substance that 'flushed' anything like that out & also gets rid of internal parasites etc.

Ever since he had this done at the vet, he had one almighty pooh & has been fine . No more blood has been found. I am putting it down to this piece of aspen, maybe getting lodged or causing a tear somewhere ???

He is all good now...

That's why I feed outside of the tank. I use a shoebox with nothing in it but a f/t mouse, that way there is no chance of swallowing anything but the mouse.

I usually put a large piece of kitchen roll in covering the aspen completely & watch them as they eat to ensure that this doesnt happen again.

Flagyl isn't a tube, it is an antiprotozoan(anthelmintic, dewormer, etc). Your snake probably had Giardia or Coccidia and that was what contributed to the bloody diarrhea/feces, and not the piece of bedding.

The majority of my snakes are fed in cage except for the two baby corns. They don't care where they eat and I like watching them, so they get fed in small critter keepers. My Balls and the Ratsnake get fed in tub and have never had problems. Yes, they've swallowed things from cypress to aspen, but haven't ever had any complications arise from this.

Well in general, snakes are meant to eat larger prey items therefore having a very powerful stomach acid. If the piece of aspen is a small piece then no need to worry, if its a large piece then I would keep an eye out. Ruby, my boa has gotten some bedding on her rat and i just reach in and take it off. She is what I call puppy dog tame so it usually won't iritate her if I do it. Like they said earlier though, its best to feed on something like a piece of paper on in a seperate container if you want. Thats why I choose papertowels and news paper for smaller guys, they have a very hard time eating a whole piece of newspaper