Substrate for feeding in cage

What can i use for feeding my BP on his cage. I use Coconut fiber because i need a little boost on humidity, but i have read that it can be accidentaly eaten. What would you recommend?

Coco husk should be fine, your BP can easily pass a small amount of coco husk substrate. Impaction due to substrate ingestion is extremely rare.

But my substrate is like dust, not like chips. Can it harm my bud in some way?. i ear that it can be inhaled by the snake.

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Originally Posted by jako

But my substrate is like dust, not like chips. Can it harm my bud in some way?. i ear that it can be inhaled by the snake.

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No

You can always combo it with something else, if not a sphagnum/aspen combo works well at keeping a good humidity. You can play with ratios or go straight with sphagnum if you need the humidity that bad. I've seen my girl miss a strike, swallow a bit of aspen, strike then proceed to consume a mouse with a bit of aspen stuck on it all in one feeding so i wouldn't worry about ingesting that... Anyway I'm sure it's fine but consider the above mentioned if you're just not comfortable w/it.

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Originally Posted by jako

But my substrate is like dust, not like chips. Can it harm my bud in some way?. i ear that it can be inhaled by the snake.

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That really shouldn't be an issue but if you are worried just keep the substrate slightly damp. This will keep the dust down.

Ok, i will spray the substrate with water and keep it a little damp but this will not cause scale rot?

You don't want to keep to too wet, but a little bit of moisture to keep the dust down will be fine.

They eat it together with the food item, they poop it out.

Thats how BPs deal with substrate. Only substrates including harmful chemicals, or substrates involving pieces of wood so large that your BP cannot poop them out naturally after swallowing them are a problem.

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

You don't want to keep to too wet, but a little bit of moisture to keep the dust down will be fine.

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Spraying the substrate once a day will be enough?

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Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

They eat it together with the food item, they poop it out.

Thats how BPs deal with substrate. Only substrates including harmful chemicals, or substrates involving pieces of wood so large that your BP cannot poop them out naturally after swallowing them are a problem.

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That really calm me a lot, because last meal had some substrate on it

You could also lay a piece of newspaper down and feed on top of that.

Paper towel would also work. And no, snake don't have the impaction issues lizards do. After all, it's not like they can wipe off thier food before they swallow it in nature. As someone already said, the only issue would be if the chunks were so large that they couldn't pass them, as in a piece of something bigger than your snakes poop.

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Originally Posted by jako

Spraying the substrate once a day will be enough?

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That will probably be fine, just don't go crazy with it. Depending on where you live and how you have your cage setup you will probably beed to mist once a day to keep the cage humidity in the proper range. Do you have a hygrometer?

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Originally Posted by Sita

You could also lay a piece of newspaper down and feed on top of that.

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Thats what ill do for now but using paper towels

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Originally Posted by Darkbird

Paper towel would also work. And no, snake don't have the impaction issues lizards do. After all, it's not like they can wipe off thier food before they swallow it in nature. As someone already said, the only issue would be if the chunks were so large that they couldn't pass them, as in a piece of something bigger than your snakes poop.

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I choose paper towels because i realized that i dont have the coconut fiber amount to fill a 20 gal tank, but i will get some more by tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

That will probably be fine, just don't go crazy with it. Depending on where you live and how you have your cage setup you will probably beed to mist once a day to keep the cage humidity in the proper range. Do you have a hygrometer?

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Yes, my higrometer is one of those with gauge. I have heard that those are inaccurate, but i made a test (water and salt) with it and it just miss by 3-5%. I try to keep humidity on 50%-60% but i rise to 65%-70% it when my snake is shedding.

I use eco earth in some of my cages for ball pythons, geckos and frogs. I'm actually in the process of switching all the ball python tubs over to it now to help with humidity. The biggest problem with it is yes it does stick to the rodents, especially if you use water to preheat them before you feed. I find that a lot less of it sticks to them though if you keep your rodents dry and use a hair dryer instead of water to preheat. They'll still ingest some but it's fine. They actually recommend coco fiber for frog enclosures because it's pretty easy to digest if they miss their bugs and get a mouthful of it.