feeding BP in substrate

[physalia]

This may be a silly question...but for those who feed their BPs live prey in a tank, do you ever worry about your snake eating substrate? My BP is on paper towel right now, but I plan on putting a substrate (probably aspen) in his tank. I know that swallowing substrate can cause problems, so what do you do? Feed in another tank? Thanks in advance for the help. Everyone's been so helpful already!!

[rando]

im not an expert or anything, but i wouldnt think that it matters. i feed my bp on aspen every week and it never caused any problems. think about it, snakes in the wild cant go into a sterilite tub to eat. they eat right on the ground and probably do get dirt and stuff in their mouth all the time. i dont think that it matters but im sure some would disagree.

[alohareptiles]

I've never had a problem since I stopped having separate feeding areas...I know for me that was an old recommendation for keeping the reptiles from thinking your hand is food when it comes into the cage...20 years ago when I got into boas my friends and I would never feed our boas in their cages and we all stopped doing that around 17 years ago...Just MHO...

[thefnshow66]

This may be a silly question...but for those who feed their BPs live prey in a tank, do you ever worry about your snake eating substrate? My BP is on paper towel right now, but I plan on putting a substrate (probably aspen) in his tank. I know that swallowing substrate can cause problems, so what do you do? Feed in another tank? Thanks in advance for the help. Everyone's been so helpful already!!

Some of my snakes have had aspen stuck on the sides of their mouths but they never try to eat it. They simply find something to rub it off, and go about their business. I wouldn't worry to much about it. Your snake will be alright.

[TheMolenater2]

I tried feeding my BP in another container before and it stresses her out. Besides, when I feed her in aspen and she does get some in her mouth, she rubs it off.

[Oxylepy]

I KNOW my male has consumed aspen bedding and seems to have shown no ill effects from it.

No that kind of substrate shouldn't be a big problem since it's so finely shredded. Where as the liquid absorbing substrates (the stuff they usually sell as small animal bedding that can absorb x times it's own volume in liquid and removes smells) can actually kill your snake if they consume it since it will expand inside of the snake.

[blackcrystal22]

In small amounts, consumed substrate is harmless. Unless referring to sand..

[Typical_08]

I know for me that was an old recommendation for keeping the reptiles from thinking your hand is food when it comes into the cage

I know that I am still new to the whole world of snakes. But just with the little bit I know I have to kind of call those that say this out. Feed your snake once a week, and handle it three times a week (or more, whatever). Through repetition, if the snake sees your hand more by being held, than being fed it is likely to assume that it is going to be handled when it sees your hand.

Or you could never let it see your hand when you go to feed it.

[MarkS]

I worry about it all the time. I have had snakes die on me before by ingesting substrate. But those were mostly small hatchlings kept on sand and one where the snake died being impacted by vermiculite (I used to keep humid hide boxes filled with damp vermiculite. The snake had pulled the prey into the hide box to swallow the food and vermiculite got stuck to it). I've also been present at a necropsy for a burm that had died after losing all muscle tone. The burm had been kept on pine chips it's whole life and was fed in the cage where the owner said it always ingested large amounts of chips on feeding day. (if you've ever seen burms eat, you'll see where they don't care what gets in their mouths as long as the food is in there somewhere too) The wood chips had splintered apart in the gut and the splinters had pierced the intestinal walls where they lodged in the surrounding muscle and eventually built up to such a concentration that they turned the muscle to jelly. Of course this was ingesting a LOT of chips over a long period of time. Most of the time I just keep my snakes on newspaper which doesn't cause any of those kinds of problems, however I'm finding I really need to use aspen in the winter if I expect to keep the humidity up to acceptable levels. I feed mostly live, which helps because substrate doesn't stick to live prey. If I'm feeding frozen thawed I like to present the food on disposable paper plates which seems to help some even though the snakes often grab the prey and drag it around the cage. There really isn't a good fool proof answer, you just need to keep your eyes open and observe feeding to determine what will work best for you.

[anatess]

If you look at all the snakebytes feeding videos you see them feeding right there on the aspen substrate. If a big breeder and reptile experts like BHB is doing it, I don't see the harm in doing it at home as well. I feed live in a feeding tank because I use the time to clean the enclosure and also since our snake is in a display vivarium, there are a lot of niches that a rat could hide in.