first feed - woo hoo

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Hi folks,
hope you all are having a good week on your side of the pond, Charlie took his first fuzzy for me Sat night - seriously chuffed with myself and him ! Only slight concern is that he managed to roll off the sheet of kitchen towel I had placed in the front half of his viv' and towards the back where he proceeded to pick up some wood substrate with his main course. I didn't want to freak him out by trying to remove it while he dined as it was his first time and I had no desire to cause him to throw the food back up as it was his first dinner in 5 weeks How dangerous is this ? it was the size of a peanut give or take . In future I'm going to remove both hides and cover entire substrate with paper towel to prevent this. Also I picked up two pea sized droppings, one snow white, the other a brown/mustard colour - is this ok ?

[frankykeno]

Congrats on the feeding! I wouldn't particularily worry about a tiny bit of substrate ingestion really. Their digestive acids are so strong that it usually isn't an issue. Rather then mess about too much with his home (and thereby possibly stressing him and triggering a refusal) if you are concerned just pop in a pad of newspaper in the middle of his enclosure and encourage feeding to occur there. You can put the paper in hours before feeding and just remove it the next day. Really though thousands of snakes eat just fine on most substrates with no issues.

The droppings sounds like a very typical urate and a dry feces. Snakes pass urine in two ways, either liquid form (typical pee) or the dry white urate (dries to a hard chalklike appearance). Their feces look to me basically like small cat poop LOL. They can pass any of the three (liquid urine, dry urate or feces) independently so you may find all three or just one when you are cleaning the enclosure.

Remember to not handle for the next 48 hours while your scaley buddy digests his meal.

[daveyboy]

well done hope this carries on

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thanks for the replys - I had no choice in handling him - he retreated to his hide for a day and a half so I could only visually check on him !! Is this normal ? but I know he was a little bit active during this period as I put a whitish piece of timber substrate on floor in front of his hide and in the morn it had being moved slightly . When you find his faeces whats the normal procedure ? do you just scoop out the substrate in his hide as this was the only place i noticed droppings?

[frankykeno]

Yep they normally are in their hides a lot anyways but when digesting or shedding they are in there pretty much constantly other than moving back and forth from cool to warm hide or having a quick drink. I use newspaper now (much easier) but when I had aspen for a substrate I always went right down to the bottom of the enclosure and a good bit around any feces, urates or liquid urine I found to make sure the whole area was clean. Once every 4 to 6 weeks or so make sure and completely empty the snake's home, clean and disinfect the whole deal (including bowls and hides) and you'll be good to go. It's a good routine to regularily scrub the water dish more often as standing water in a humid environment is like a "COME ON IN" sign for bacteria.

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thanks for reply/info - I scrub out water bowl & soak bowl every day before filling them up, its as easy to do both tasks when at the sink I find ... I think I'll give the viv' a real good cleaning on my next day off, its not been cleaned since I got it and no idea previous to that, so best err on the side of caution ... I'm really getting into this whole pet snake groove - thanks for all your help once again