I used to use it when I kept rodents, but I noticed a lot of vendors using it in their displays at the Toronto expo. I think they're just using it because it looks cool, but if you ask me I wouldn't use it as a long-term substrate for a ball python because it was a huge pain to clean out waste on when I had it for my rodents, and for a snake it'd be very easy to swallow accidentally during feeding, so I can only imagine that if they swallow it, it would expand in them, and be tougher to pass than say a wood/cocnut substrate.