feeding BP in substrate

[Tosha_Mc]

Ingesting a bit of aspen is not usually a big deal for a healthy ball - your biggest concern would be the occasional mouth splinters.

Good luck!

[Lucas339]

what about cypress? will this just pass through?

[physalia]

Thank you all for posting, I appreciate your help. Alas, my ball python passed away this weekend. It's very upsetting, I'm not sure what happened.

My BP had mites, not too many, a few. While awaiting the medicine in the mail, I cleaned his tank and decor, gave him a bath, and just put the hides back in with water on paper towels. All the temp/humidity parameters were ok.

Few days later, I fed him a live mouse. The following day, he came out of his hide and was acting funny...positioning weird. Then, he writhed around a bit, and died.

I can't understand it, not sure what went wrong. I purchased him a week ago. I got him from a local pet store, so maybe that was the mistake.

I am planning on purchasing another BP at some point...this time from a reputable breeder. Thanks again everyone.

[JNieporte]

Very sorry to hear about the passing of your snake I know it can be hard, especially with such a new one.

For what it's worth, I fed mine in her cage today, live and right on the aspen bedding. No mess, full face strike, no biting, no bedding in her mouth. I'm not going to keep this method, but it's nice to see that it worked for her this one time.

Again, I'm sorry to hear about the passing of your friend. Did you have a name for him?

[physalia]

Very sorry to hear about the passing of your snake I know it can be hard, especially with such a new one.

For what it's worth, I fed mine in her cage today, live and right on the aspen bedding. No mess, full face strike, no biting, no bedding in her mouth. I'm not going to keep this method, but it's nice to see that it worked for her this one time.

Again, I'm sorry to hear about the passing of your friend. Did you have a name for him?

Thank you so much JNieporte. He did have a name...Ziggy. My 4-year old daughter named him. We were all so excited to have him here, it's been tough since he went so suddenly.

[Texas Dan]

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!!

It's not going to be an issue. I'm sure others have already said it. Aspen is soft, rat bones are hard.