Is it ok that he ate a bark chip?

[icygirl]

My ~20" ball python ate a piece of repti-bark when feeding. Is this ok? I tried to get it off the side of the mouse with the back of a pen, but the second I tried that he took the mouse into his hide, and I wasn't about to go bother him there. Snake stomach acid is super strong, right?

[hoo-t]

Shouldn't be a problem. Mine occasionally get aspen bits with their meals. It may have even fallen off in the hide.

Steve

[icygirl]

Thanks. Guess I'm just paranoid because my first herp was a beardie, and if he ate substrate it pretty much meant a trip to the vet later.

[Nikki0326]

For the future you might want to feed outside the cage or change the substrate so you don't have that problem again.

[Moriar]

get like a sterilite container with a good amount of space and feed him in that. just give him a few minutes after he/she is done eating and pushing the prey into his/her stomach. then gently pick him up while supporting his gut and place him back in his enclousure and leave him be a few days to digest. only fed my male once in his enclosure and he ate a bit of aspen so i feed outside to avoid him eating his substrate... some advocate feeding inside the enclosure and thats ok just place like a paper towel or something over the substrate and place him on it then offer the prey.

[littleindiangirl]

You can put down a square of cardboard then put the rat/mouse on that.

[frankykeno]

I doubt it will cause any problems if it's just a little bit. These snakes have stomach acids that easily digest bones, teeth, fur, etc. and it's not like some native is running about laying down newspaper on the ground all over Africa LOL. Just keep an eye on the snake, maybe peek in it's mouth in a few days to make sure it didn't get scratched but really it's likely not going to create a problem. If you're concerned about substrate ingestion you can go with a fine shred aspen perhaps or just put the snake on newspaper.

[shag]

I have to take the water dish out and put down some paper towel cause mine gets a little excited and was draging his pray through his dish getting aspen stuck all over. So out comes his water dish and in goes a paper towel; he now pokes his head out when he notices the paper towel, and when he strikes i keep hold of his pray so that he drags his body out of his hide onto the paper towel.

[icygirl]

Thanks for the responses. I am actually intending on changing the substrate soon anyways to eco-earth because my humidity levels are stubborn. I have heard that is more digestible anyways. This never used to be a problem because I would put the mouse on top of a fake plant that he couldn't ingest, and he'd eat it there. But lately he has been dragging the mouse around on the substrate.

I doubt it's a big problem though, as he only really got one bark chip. Is it bad to stick the back of a pen in there to flick off a piece of bark? Is it really bad to bother them while they're feeding?