Do you ever feed directly on Loose Substrate

[LLLReptile]

At home I feed all of my critters on their substrate - never had an issue at all, even if they did ingest some. My blue tongues can be the worst at eating their bedding, but they usually spit it all out, and what they don't, I've seen in their feces. The ball pythons I rarely, if ever, see them actually get any into their mouths, even when feeding on live prey items.

From watching the hundreds of animals in the stores, they're extremely capable of removing substrate from their mouth on the occasions that they do get any in or near that area. The only potential issue would be when substrate chunks are too large - it's best if they're big enough to be spit out (I prefer mixing eco earth with bark or cypress for this reason) but not so big that it can't be easily swallowed if it has to be (so smaller bark pieces, smaller shredded wood chip beddings, etc).

My folks have a panther chameleon that was chewing the bark off of the wood perches in his cage... he passed a 4" long strip of tree bark one day. He certainly didn't seem to enjoy the process (coincidentally, he hasn't really chewed bark on the perches since) but he did manage to pass it on his own. One of the more unusual texts/phone calls I've received from my mother, to be sure.

While in the wild there's no one out there picking the bark/dirt/wood out of the animal's mouths when they eat, true, it's also worth considering that in the wild, not every single animal makes it for a full natural lifespan. We don't know how often wild reptiles die from complications with eating something they're not supposed to. Not saying that we should never feed directly on substrate (again, I feed directly on loose substrate at home), but it's worth remembering that they're not indestructible, either. Flukes happen! So just monitor your pets while they eat.

-Jen