new snake owner

yeah i own a baby ball python between 19''-20'' in length and approx. between 110-130gr. in weight. i owned ''marcus'' for 1 month and 6 days and during this time period he has eaten 10 fuzzies. without a problem. i have a few questions for any of the experience snake keepers. while i have marcus in my care feeding him 2 fuzzies every friday. how much avg. weight gain will i see in 3 months from now.also,do snakes get more water from their meals than they actually drink or what.also sometimes marcus hits the mice so fast in his cage that pieces of repti bark inhis mouth can this cause impaction or will it digest i have been sucessfull at removing the pieces from his which seems he wants to eat along with the mice lol.

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Originally Posted by lamar3986

yeah i own a baby ball python between 19''-20'' in length and approx. between 110-130gr. in weight. i owned ''marcus'' for 1 month and 6 days and during this time period he has eaten 10 fuzzies. without a problem. i have a few questions for any of the experience snake keepers. while i have marcus in my care feeding him 2 fuzzies every friday. how much avg. weight gain will i see in 3 months from now.also,do snakes get more water from their meals than they actually drink or what.also sometimes marcus hits the mice so fast in his cage that pieces of repti bark inhis mouth can this cause impaction or will it digest i have been sucessfull at removing the pieces from his which seems he wants to eat along with the mice lol.

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First off no your snake will not digest the wood bark.If he does infact swallow it he could choke and inturn die.I am not trying to scare you just being honest here.Our local zoo lost a Albino Burmese Python because she swallow some of the bark stuff from her enclosures floor.I use newspapers for my substrate,it might not be pretty but my snakes can not die from it.As far as the weight gain every snake is differant so you can not have a set weight gain to expect.If your snake sheds at least every 4 to 6 weeks like clock work he is being fed properly and is healthy.Are you feeding him mouse fuzzies or rat fuzzies? I feed my babies at that size rat pinks or small rat fuzzies,thats just me though.;)

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Originally Posted by lamar3986

yeah i own a baby ball python between 19''-20'' in length and approx. between 110-130gr. in weight. i owned ''marcus'' for 1 month and 6 days and during this time period he has eaten 10 fuzzies. without a problem. i have a few questions for any of the experience snake keepers. while i have marcus in my care feeding him 2 fuzzies every friday. how much avg. weight gain will i see in 3 months from now.also,do snakes get more water from their meals than they actually drink or what.also sometimes marcus hits the mice so fast in his cage that pieces of repti bark inhis mouth can this cause impaction or will it digest i have been sucessfull at removing the pieces from his which seems he wants to eat along with the mice lol.

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Each snake is different in the rate at which it grows at. The most important part is that he eat one prey item the same size as the thickest part of the snake once a week. You might wanna bump up to some hoppers or even small adult mice. Snakes get most of their water from their meals but thats not to say that you shouldn't give them fresh water every day. The pieces of substrate should be fine as long as they're not a cedar substrate, so you should be alright. Hope that helps and welcome to the site.

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Originally Posted by joepythons

First off no your snake will not digest the wood bark.If he does infact swallow it he could choke and inturn die.I am not trying to scare you just being honest here.Our local zoo lost a Albino Burmese Python because she swallow some of the bark stuff from her enclosures floor.

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Wow really, i was under the impression that they could digest small pieces of substrate?

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Originally Posted by Spaniard

Wow really, i was under the impression that they could digest small pieces of substrate?

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Nope. The burmese from our zoo swallowed a piece of wood about 1 inch and it lodged in her mouth and by the time they relized something was wrong it was to late:( .She was the retired snake that was used to go around to the schools here and educate the kids.:(

Well I'm glad I don't use bark. Thanks for the info

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Originally Posted by Spaniard

Well I'm glad I don't use bark. Thanks for the info

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No problem :cool:

I use various brands of shredded coconut husks....I know some say digestable..what do you think?

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Originally Posted by TheAudOne

I use various brands of shredded coconut husks....I know some say digestable..what do you think?

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If you want my honest opinion,nope nodda never:P .

I've read several times that if they swallow their substrate they will usually be able to swallow it and digest it unless it gets caught awkwardly, which, apparently, is rare. After all, they digest bones and teeth and in the wild it's likely that they swallow stuff while they're eating their prey. I'd just say to lay down the prey on some kitchen roll (if you're feeding f/t of course), that's what I did when I had to look after my friend's snakes over the summer (oh, and that's not just me using my own methods on his snakes, I wouldn't ever do that, he does it every feeding time). Oh yea I just remembered, his first snake, a corn, swallowed some substrate during feeding once, quite a lot apparently, but was fine and that was just when he was a baby. Anyone care to apply an explanation?


:D Sam

Back when my snake was younger (3ft in length, 4yrs ago) I fed inside his tank. One day I while he as swallowing the food I notice a piece of aspen in his mouth and I quickly brought my hand in the tank and took it out (My snake didnt seem to notice) but Im sure maybe another one got into his mouth before I even noticed and he swallowed it. So now we let him bite and coil onto the food in his tank then take the rat by the tail and pull it out while the snake is still attached to the food. He will not let go, infact he wraps more coils around the rat and we then put him in a large plastic tub to finish the rat off. People ask me why dont I just put the snake in another feeding enclosure and let him eat the f/t food there. I tell them my snake feels unsure of himself and not safe being switched to a newer environment to feed. Infact when we tried this once she just tried a to find a way to escape the f/t food. lol. So now we just feed inside the tank when he is hungry, then tank him out of the tank while he is "killing the f/t food.

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Originally Posted by Sapphire7

Back when my snake was younger (3ft in length, 4yrs ago) I fed inside his tank. One day I while he as swallowing the food I notice a piece of aspen in his mouth and I quickly brought my hand in the tank and took it out (My snake didnt seem to notice) but Im sure maybe another one got into his mouth before I even noticed and he swallowed it. So now we let him bite and coil onto the food in his tank then take the rat by the tail and pull it out while the snake is still attached to the food. He will not let go, infact he wraps more coils around the rat and we then put him in a large plastic tub to finish the rat off. People ask me why dont I just put the snake in another feeding enclosure and let him eat the f/t food there. I tell them my snake feels unsure of himself and not safe being switched to a newer environment to feed. Infact when we tried this once she just tried a to find a way to escape the f/t food. lol. So now we just feed inside the tank when he is hungry, then tank him out of the tank while he is "killing the f/t food.

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You could just put paper towels under the mouse :P

To me, that's much easier than handling a snake that just ate to put him back in his tank.

I use aspen and I've never had a problem with a few stray pieces of aspen going down with the meal.

We've been feeding Monty for the last 7 weeks out of his normal enclosure in a large cardboard box. Most of my friends feed their snakes that way, too. No substrate in the carboard box to worry about, just a plain empty box except for the PB and his live meal.
I'm sure some will disagree with this technic, but it has worked so far us and my friends, too.

I just take a small square of astroturf and put that over my substrate ill leave that in there for about 15 min or so and my ball starts crusing all over i guess she smells past meals or somthing but the fuzzy dosnt even hit the ground most of the time and it seems to do a good job a stopping substrate from getting near her mouth or the meal