So, while we're tackling oft heard yet never substantiated snake advice, I'd like to poilitely ask for some of you to take the time to address another topic:
Substrate caused impactions.
Now I have heard first hand accounts of impactions in very young snakes (although I have never experienced one in my snakes) but have never heard of nor seen a substantiated case of an adult snake suffering from a substrate-caused impaction.
We have all seen it come up in thread after thread discussing both substrates and the pros and cons of feeding in a separate enclosure, yet the warnings seem to far outpace the actual cases. In fact, I would need a calculator to add up all the warnings regarding ingested substrate and compactions on this site alone, yet could count all of the actual incidences on a closed fist.
My own personal experience is this - I have fed snakes for many moons on a variety of loose subsrates from pine to fir to aspen to coconut noir. I have had snakes roll their prey in shavings and consume a mouthful of wood countless times with no adverse digestion-related effects. The only incident I had was a fur and wood "booger" blocking a genetically narrowed lacrimal duct.
So here's a chance to post your experiences with substrate-caused intestinal impactions. First hand accounts only and if you had an animal that died of an impaction, did you confirm it with an actual necropsy. The one or two cases I heard of in adult snakes were never confirmed in this manner. Without positive confirmation, it don't count.
Over the years I have asked a couple of dedicated herp vets about this subject as it pertains to adult snakes and have had only one of three vets confirm one actual case - and it came with a caveat. It was in an animal that was already suffering from a thickening of the stomach and intestinal lining from a primary disease. All three pretty much confirmed that they are extremely rare if not almost non-existent.
So that begs the question - whay are so many people ready to jump in and warn against something that may be rarer than rare? Let's see those ingested substrate horror stories.
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