Quote Originally Posted by Azaria View Post
The first time we got him to eat, he MAY have eaten some substrate (I no longer feed in his home with aspen).
All snakes housed in loose substrate will always swallow some amount of the substrate, but not a huge amount to become impacted. A snake would have to swallow a pretty large amount of substrate to be able to become impacted, although their stomach acids are so strong that those small pieces of substrate normally will not cause impaction.

You do not have to feed him outside of the enclosure, that just adds on to stress and raises the chance of the snake refusing the meal. I would suggest to keep feeding him in his enclosure so he is less stressed on feeding days, and don't feel any worry that he will become impacted. You can even place a paper towel down and have him eat on the paper towel if that makes you feel more comfortable.

Joe gave a pretty good answer. I'll add in that snakes can go months without going to the bathroom and they will be just fine. On another website, someone's Blood python didn't go for 8 months and finally decided to let it go. So don't be worried if he isn't defecating, he will let it out when he really wants to.

If you are pretty paranoid about it still, you can give him a warm soak. The warm water helps bowel movements so he will most likely go when bathing.