Question?

[BDwarrior]

So Hades struck a rat right into his water bowl and was in there for a while making sure it was dead. then he dragged it out, went back in, and then repeated that again. after he finally got it away from the water bowl and stared eating there was some aspen bedding stuck on the mouse and i think he swallowed a bit. is this ok?

Also, what concerns me more, is that he started making a slight whistling noise every minute or two while breathing after, while trying to re adjust his jaw. he wasn't making the noise before, so is this just him trying to get the water out of his nose? or something to do with the swallowed aspen bedding? he's now curled up safe in his hide and isn't rubbing his jaw anymore. and i haven't heard any whistling for a bit. I just get kind of paranoid about things like this.

[heathers*bps]

He's fine with swallowing a little bit of substrate. They digest bone, fur and teeth so I think a small amount of aspen won't do any harm.
Also, the whistling sound was most likely him adjusting his jaw, and also while he had the rat in his mouth, breathing. I'm sure he is fine

[Slim]

Every once in a while I'll have a BP that thinks feeding time is the Poseidon Adventure and strikes the rat into the water bowl. I just grab whatever part of the rat is visible with the tongs and pull the snake and rat out of the water. On more than one occasion when doing this the snake will take a long audible inhale when their head comes out of the water. So far I haven't seen any ill effects.

I wouldn't worry about a piece of aspen here or there. They'll pass that through their system with little trouble.

[GlassPython]

Not trying to make this sound rude, but I'm just trying to offer some sound advice, so here goes: Whenever you feed a snake, especially ones that you'll be handling, it is always a very good idea to always take your snake out of the cage that it 'lives' in, and put him/her in a tub, box, or on a towel on the floor (my snakes notice that when I lay towel on the floor, it's feeding time!).
Which is why you need to feed them outside their cage, soon they will associate you opening the cage lid with feeding time, and in actuality you're just reaching in to take them out for handling, and they strike based on what they know/learned. For me anything to lessen the odds of getting bitten, is put to use, as I've been bit a few times, and it can be kind of startling...lol.

[Slim]

Not trying to make this sound rude, but I'm just trying to offer some sound advice, so here goes: Whenever you feed a snake, especially ones that you'll be handling, it is always a very good idea to always take your snake out of the cage that it 'lives' in, and put him/her in a tub, box, or on a towel on the floor (my snakes notice that when I lay towel on the floor, it's feeding time!).
Which is why you need to feed them outside their cage, soon they will associate you opening the cage lid with feeding time, and in actuality you're just reaching in to take them out for handling, and they strike based on what they know/learned. For me anything to lessen the odds of getting bitten, is put to use, as I've been bit a few times, and it can be kind of startling...lol.

Cage aggression caused by feeding ball pythons inside their enclosures is a complete and total myth. They do not learn to associate their cages with food any more than they learn to associate a tub or towel with feeding time.

The feeding mode is triggered by scent, heat, and to a lesser degree, sight. Unless you smell like, have the heat signature of, and look like a rat, sticking your hand into your snakes cage to handle them will not engage them in feeding mode. Same with puting your snake in a tub or on a towel. They could care less where you put them down. You won't get a feeding response with out the proper stimuli.

There is no reason to feed a snake in a seperate location. In fact, there are quite a few very real reasons not to feed outside the enclosure.

[RaskaNeil]

Aspen bedding is made so your reptile friends can break it down without any complications. I use fir bark and they do they something. It's actually quite hard to find a substrate that isnt made for accidental digestion.

[jdouglas]

Cage aggression caused by feeding ball pythons inside their enclosures is a complete and total myth. They do not learn to associate their cages with food any more than they learn to associate a tub or towel with feeding time.

The feeding mode is triggered by scent, heat, and to a lesser degree, sight. Unless you smell like, have the heat signature of, and look like a rat, sticking your hand into your snakes cage to handle them will not engage them in feeding mode. Same with putting your snake in a tub or on a towel. They could care less where you put them down. You won't get a feeding response with out the proper stimuli.

There is no reason to feed a snake in a separate location. In fact, there are quite a few very real reasons not to feed outside the enclosure.

^^This, I have been feeding my boy in his cage. And he is the sweetest thing. The most he will do is go into a "strike position". I have even attempted to get him to strike at me by going straight in for him while he is in this position but he will not bite (I want to get my first bite over with haha). He must think hes a cobra or something the way he just gets taller and taller the closer I get but never hisses or strikes at me.

Now if I have presented the room with a F/T rat he will strike at anything that moves! Even the sliding glass doors while I am sliding them open! I don't want a feeding response bite though. So I would never touch or try to handle him while there is the smell of a rat in the room.

[sissysnakes]

Cage aggression caused by feeding ball pythons inside their enclosures is a complete and total myth. They do not learn to associate their cages with food any more than they learn to associate a tub or towel with feeding time.

The feeding mode is triggered by scent, heat, and to a lesser degree, sight. Unless you smell like, have the heat signature of, and look like a rat, sticking your hand into your snakes cage to handle them will not engage them in feeding mode. Same with puting your snake in a tub or on a towel. They could care less where you put them down. You won't get a feeding response with out the proper stimuli.

There is no reason to feed a snake in a seperate location. In fact, there are quite a few very real reasons not to feed outside the enclosure.

I feed all of my reptiles inside their enclosures. Everyone eats F/T except my Dumeril who refuses to eat anything that is not running around of its own accord. She is an especially shy girl and stresses easily, so moving her around a lot before feeding can ruin her appetite. She has never acted aggressively when I reach into her tub and her feeding response is Only triggered with live food… I tried to giver her F/T for a while and all she would do is push it around with her nose and then watch lackadaisically as I reached in a pulled it out with my hand. Needless to say feeding in the enclosure does not make for an aggressive snake.