Will the bedding in her cage hurt her?

Hi I'm an new owner for a ball python. I have been looking up information for a few days and I've known a lot about snakes in a general sense but I'm quickly finding out I dont know much about pythons.

I have been looking all around the net to find info, but I havent found what I'm looking for. I fed my snake for the first time sense I got her today but I noticed that while she was trying to eat the frozen to thawed mouse she got a lot of the coconut shavings on her food and caked to her mouth.

Is it dangerous for her to eat? I bought the eco earth coconut fiber concentrate so I think she should be ok but let me know if I should be worried.

Thanks-

No worries, but I would use something larger so she isn't ingesting anything other than her food.
I started with fine aspen bedding and found mites in it and wet Frozen/Thawed food picked up the beadding so I switched to larger aspen shavings. I wasn't crazy about that and ended up using paper towel or cut-to-fit doggy training pads.

Others will be able to tell you what they use.

Thanks for the response I'm definitely going to go to something larger, the bedding she had before was coconut bark, but they didnt have any of that at pet smart so I figured this would be better than nothing, at the time I didnt realize I could use paper towels either.

If you have any other tips for a beginer I would be happy to listen :) and again thank you!

I would stick to the coconut husk. Just because the aspen is larger doesn't mean it won't get ingested. Smaller would be easier to pass than larger if it is ingested.

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Originally Posted by Crazymonkee

I would stick to the coconut husk. Just because the aspen is larger doesn't mean it won't get ingested. Smaller would be easier to pass than larger if it is ingested.

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Agreed.
The first time I possibly had my snake ingest a piece of bedding, and either swallow or dislodge it during the night before I got it to the vet.
My snake HATES having its head touched so after a couple of attempts I left it alone and scheduled an appointment.
The vet told me that the size piece I was describing should pose no problems and would pass in the next couple of bowel movements.
She even told me I could probably find it if I looked.

I agree that smaller would be better when it comes to bedding if your snake makes a habit of eating it.

Snakes have been living in the wild for millions and millions of years without being on perfectly sized substrate with perfectly dry prey items. Unless your snake gets mouthfuls and mouthfuls of substrate ingested, you're not going to see an issue. They can break down bones completely, you don't think their stomach acid can handle a bit of wood or coconut husk? My snakes are on reptibark and they ingest substrate, sometimes quite a bit, and I have yet to have an issue with it at all. If they swallow the rat and there's substrate in their mouth still, they're capable of getting the substrate out of their mouth just fine. If they couldn't, snakes would have died out long ago since only in captivity are there humans hovering anxiously with tweezers to bother their snake while it's eating and ready to pluck out that /one piece/ of substrate.

Another thing you could do that I did when I use to use substrate as bedding, is place some newspaper down before you feed and get the snake onto the newspaper before offering so that it eats on the newspaper and there's no chance the prey item will get bedding all over it before eaten.

I use aspen and I like it.

I do dry the f/t food off so it doesn't get shavings stuck to it.

I think I like this option best, I was talking to a lady at the pet store and had mentioned that the snake would snap at the previous owner ( I haven't had that problem yet but perhaps there was some previous mistreatment. Not sure though.) She suggested feeding her in a separate cage to prevent this so I could line it in news paper in her old cage sense I just upgraded her to a 40 gallon tank. Do you think it might just be more stressful moving back and forth though? I would rather have her snap and just keep her more for viewing than stress her out and cause her harm.:P

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Originally Posted by LunaTheBp

I think I like this option best, I was talking to a lady at the pet store and had mentioned that the snake would snap at the previous owner ( I haven't had that problem yet but perhaps there was some previous mistreatment. Not sure though.) She suggested feeding her in a separate cage to prevent this so I could line it in news paper in her old cage sense I just upgraded her to a 40 gallon tank. Do you think it might just be more stressful moving back and forth though? I would rather have her snap and just keep her more for viewing than stress her out and cause her harm.:P

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NO do not feed in a separate tank, the lady who told you that was an idiot. How big is your BP also because a 40 gallon tank may be way to big, especially with maintaining the right temps and humidity.

Feeding her a dry f/t should take care of that problem of stuck substrate. I thaw mine wrapped nicely inside a paper towel so it absorbs the moisture as it thaws. Immediately before I feed, I hold the f/t with a pair of tongs and take the hair drier to it for about 60 seconds. It warms it a little warmer than room temperature, it's totally dry by that point, and the substrate doesn't stick.

It is completely not necessary to feed in a separate container it stresses the snake. If the snake is already snappy you are more than likely gonna get bit if it's in feed mode.
I would keep her on the coconut husk. We humans tend to over think stuff and worry way to much. Nobody puts newspaper down for wild snakes to eat.
I am in NO WAY saying don't care for or worry about our pets but we tend to overdo it.

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Alright, thanks for the input as far as feeding her in a different cage. I was worried the stress level would pick up its glad to know I was worried for the right reasons.

She's approx 34" I haven't been able to get a very accurate measure of her yet but she stretched well past the extended length of my arm. I don't have a scale and I wont be getting one until at least Oct. 6 because of the fact I'm more interested in taking her to the vet (she'll get weighed there I believe.) I have been trying to give her plenty of time to adjust, especially since I moved her to the new cage after a week of having her. I had thought either way she would of needed to be moved seeing as she had just shed in her cage a couple days before and there ware several pieces of shedding and urate in it indicating that it hadn't been cleaned in a while (once I asked it had been about 2 months since they changed the bedding.)

Once she was in her new cage I gave her a day to settle in and then fed her the f/t mouse which she took, I thought it was a good sign meaning that she's happy and comfortable. Am I wrong? :(

I'f I need to I can put her in the previous tank but she didn't seem happy and stayed in her hide 2-3 nights before she came out and even then she went right back in for another few nights. I say nights because she simply refuses to come out during the day. She's been very active and wandering a lot since I moved her into the new one.

Sorry if I over did the details I'm stressing the fact that I may have just bought a new tank for no reason. The heat and humidity haven't been a problem yet but my house stays at 80 degrees year round and I watch the humidity like a hawk 'cause I know utah is one heck of a dry state.

The vet will definitely weigh her. Or you need a new vet. I think that with one day to settle in the fact that she took her meal with no issue is a great thing- you are on the money there.

Details are crucial! I think it is very important to mention all pertinent information as well as the other stuff you notice but think may be unrelated. Providing a complete picture will help ensure you get the information you need. I think the new cage will be fine, continue to make sure the husbandry is as it should be and Luna will be fine.

Well decided not to take her to the vet so not a big deal, found out she's almost 4 and a half inches around her belly shich is a lot bigger than I though! and then I couldn't get an accurate length but it was at least thirty, so the weighing can wait until a month or so down the line. I'm so glad I got to hold her today though :)

I was very eager to hold her when I first got her but I made my self wait, it was well worth it because she slithered all over flicking her tongue, she even got around my legs and then her tongue hit my foot, oh my heck it tickled but I'm happy she was relaxed. at that point I had to put her away though cuz I had seen one of her spurs and freaked out thinking it was a sliver, after noticing the other I wanted to do research in which I found a more detailed pic of a snake vent then I had yet seen.

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Originally Posted by Neal

NO do not feed in a separate tank, the lady who told you that was an idiot. How big is your BP also because a 40 gallon tank may be way to big, especially with maintaining the right temps and humidity.

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I actually feed my snake in a seperate container. I do understand that it is bit stressful for them but it has been eating very nicely for me and I might have talked about this long ago lol. I just wanted to throw him and let him know some do feed in seperate container.

As an amateur, I can't argue much but I do like the fact when I feed my snake in seperate cage it prevents from eating substrates( I use coconut husk so it wouldn't be threat to my snake but I just dont like the fact they can consume them) and f/t from get covered with substrate or guts splashing all over the place haha

"Snakes don't bite. Just humans."

Once upon a time I used to use aspen too, not anymore ...

http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/a...loodyaspen.jpg

Paper towels only here, no wood bedding, no nasty coconut bedding, nothing but paper towels for hatchlings to 3000+ gram females.