Mouth full of substrate

[Mirakuru]

Hi everyone, I use coconut fiber substrate and when I fed my boy yesterday (second time he's taken it since I've had him) he only did a partial wrap after sniffing for around 5 minutes.
He struck the middle of the rat so I left him alone to adjust it himself but I watched to see what would happen. It was very strange because he unwrapped and started to sort of, wiggle a lot? Similar to thrashing with the mouse in his mouth.

While he was doing this, I assume he got a lot of substrate in his mouth because he let go of the mouse and it took a minute for him to swallow/take care of the coconut fiber he got in there. I left the mouse in for about an hour and he didn't take to it again.

Here's a photo after he did his little thrashing. I didn't move him to a different tub to feed, just moved some rocks to give him room to wrap. I fed him about a week before with little issues, where I left him alone after he wrapped and he had struck the mouse in the middle but didn't have an issue adjusting because when I came back 5 minutes later it was gone.



should I worry about his digestion? When should I try to feed him next? He's refused 3 meals so far in 2 months, last week and yesterday were the only time he took and he only successfully swallowed the first one.

Thanks guys!

[Craiga 01453]

Are you sure you're getting the prey hot enough? It should be roughly 100° when offered. And keep in mind, it cools fairly quickly.

As for the substrate, don't sweat it. They have been swallowing dirt for thousand of years and are just fine.
And are you sure there was substrate in the mouth and not just realigning the jaw?

Hold off on offering for at least five days. Offering too often can stress the snake and lead to more refusals.

Oh, and next time leave the rocks, hides, etc... in the enclosure when you feed. You want it to seem as "normal" as possible. Even something as little as moving that stuff may be enough to stress the snake enough that he refuses.
Think of it this way, they are ambush predators who hide and wait for prey to be within reach. They're usually in tight quarters when they strike in nature. So as keepers we try to mimic nature the best we can.

[Mirakuru]

I make sure it's warm all the way through but I could use the heat gun on it next time to be sure it's up to par! I'm always afraid of cooking it even though I know it's pretty unlikely. Thank you for the tips!! I didn't know about offering too much was something to be mindful about.
There was a lot of dirt.. definitely re-aligning his jaw but whole mouth was pretty coated.

Is it better to feed when the snake is in their hide or when they seem to be more active?

[Craiga 01453]

I make sure it's warm all the way through but I could use the heat gun on it next time to be sure it's up to par! I'm always afraid of cooking it even though I know it's pretty unlikely. Thank you for the tips!! I didn't know about offering too much was something to be mindful about.
There was a lot of dirt.. definitely re-aligning his jaw but whole mouth was pretty coated.

Is it better to feed when the snake is in their hide or when they seem to be more active?

Yeah, definitely use your temp gun. Focus especially on the head since BPs rely heavily on their heat sensors. Once you've fed enough times you'll be able to tell just from experience when the prey is warm enough.

As for not cooking it, just make sure you're not thawing and heating with anything too hot. I always let them fully defrost before heating too.

Ok, since it was just dirt/Coco coir you've got nothing to worry about.

And yes, definitely try to feed when they're in their hides. My only snake who will eat when not in a hide or burrowed is my Kingsnake. But he'd eat as part of the Super Bowl halftime show in front of a soldout stadium, hahahhaha.