Don't use Eco Earth Loose coconut fiber substrate.

[ed4281]

I just had a horrible experience with this bedding, my snake struck at her mouse, missed and got a horrible mouth full of this stuff and couldn’t work it out. She literally chocked on the stuff it was stuck like paste to the bottom and top of her mouth and completely clogged her glottis. I will never use this again.
Any other ideas what to use in a glass aquarium that looks good and holds in humidity.

She's doing fine now although a little pissed about the mouth rinsing but she went back in ate the mouse amazingly enough.

[steveboos]

Yeah hence why most people on here recommend using aspen or Repti Bark. Repti bark will keep your humidity high and the pieces are big enough that your snake can't ingest it and get impacted.

[iCandiBallPythons]

I don't like loose substrate at all.

[bearhart]

I've switched to coconut fiber recently since I can get it in large amounts cheap. What you said happens occasionally but I don't think its really a serious situation. I've had similar situations with other bedding. For example, I used to use a fir/sphagnum bedding. It was expensive but I had good results. Due to its rougher texture I never had the "mouthfuls of dirt" scenarios like I see every so often w/ coconut. But...one time my BP missed and hit a little piece of fir bark and got it nailed down on his lower front teeth. This sucker was not coming out with the standard mouth-rubbing routine. My snake was so pissed it worked on it for a good half-hour before giving in and consuming the mouse with a dirty mouth. In the end, I had to forcibly remove the piece of bark.

My theory along these lines is that snakes eat off of dirt and twigs in the wild and therefore are equipped to handle the occasional mouthful of substrate. Of course, you want your pet to reap some benefits from captivity but it is important to remember what they are built for. I'm not flaming you for switching to another substrate. I've considered it myself for this very reason. But, I think the finely ground nature of coconut fiber probably makes it a low compaction risk. And, coconut fiber has some excellent properties such as moisture retention and bacteria resistance. In addition, it packs nicely which I like. Some beddings allow the snake to slowly burrow down towards the heat source under its hide which makes tricker to safely heat the cage.

[joepythons]

Yeah hence why most people on here recommend using aspen or Repti Bark. Repti bark will keep your humidity high and the pieces are big enough that your snake can't ingest it and get impacted.

I know someone that lost his albino burm to that repti-bark crap .I used old newspapers for all my snakes .If they get bored maybe they can learn to read

[bearhart]

LOL

But then you have to worry about them starting to ask difficult questions...

[joepythons]

LOL

But then you have to worry about them starting to ask difficult questions...

Maybe but you will know if they are unhappy about anything

[bearhart]

Seriously, though, this raises a good question for me. I've always been a bit hazy on exactly how compaction occurs. When I first heard of it, it was this kind of spooky thing that might as well have been "kooties". After some more reading and experience with snakes, I've reasoned that they must have to consume some significant amount of non-digestable material and attain some sort of "critical mass" to become dangerously blocked up.

what I'm still not sure of is about how much material that is and whether or not it is cumulative. I would tend to think that, for compaction to occur, the snake would have to consume some large amount of bedding in one meal. My reasoning is that, if the amount is too small to create a blockage, it will be passed through even if it is non-digestable. What is scarier to me is that thought that perhaps compaction occurs as a buildiup.

Can anybody shed more light on this?

[Chocolate Muffin's]

I love coco mulch, I personally think its heaven sent. I avoid the whole situation you described by usually using a feeding bin for mealtime. I just have paper towels for that.

I would hate for you to blast coco mulch just because of this one incident.Its greats stuff, IMHO. There are lots of us who like it, and if you feed outside of their enclousre you won't have this issue, although I recognize this may not be something you do

[joepythons]

Seriously, though, this raises a good question for me. I've always been a bit hazy on exactly how compaction occurs. When I first heard of it, it was this kind of spooky thing that might as well have been "kooties". After some more reading and experience with snakes, I've reasoned that they must have to consume some significant amount of non-digestable material and attain some sort of "critical mass" to become dangerously blocked up.

what I'm still not sure of is about how much material that is and whether or not it is cumulative. I would tend to think that, for compaction to occur, the snake would have to consume some large amount of bedding in one meal. My reasoning is that, if the amount is too small to create a blockage, it will be passed through even if it is non-digestable. What is scarier to me is that thought that perhaps compaction occurs as a buildiup.

Can anybody shed more light on this?

Well with the repti-bark it took one piece caught in the throat and it killed the snake before they realized something was wrong .So its not always the amount that is fatal.