Bedding/Feeding Question

[DVirginiana]

I've decided based on things I've read here to start feeding my BP in her enclosure. I know swallowing enough bedding to cause a problem is unlikely but, having several animals that will eat their bedding in a heartbeat, I'm kind of paranoid. I was wondering if there was a specific kind of bedding that is safer when ingested or anything that shouldn't be in her enclosure while she's eating? Right now she's on cypress mulch but prefers her hide to burrowing, so I doubt she'd care much if I changed her bedding to something else.

[blue roses]

I have also started feeding in the viv, and also use cypress mulch. when i started to do this i was paranoid of him injesting the substrate, so to try to avoid this or keep it to a minimum i defrost my FT rat in a plastic sealed baggy, then hit it with a hair dryer on low heat to make sure it is dry then dance it in his viv using long tongs. He is such a good eater it barely touches the ground, so far its worked well. I really don't ever see much substrate on it, just a little dust pieces, and his poops seem normal and weekly.

[DVirginiana]

Mine will only touch live, so I don't have to worry about drying the mouse off at least.
I know I'm probably overthinking the whole thing, but it's still good to hear positive feeding results for the type bedding mine has. I know there's only a tiny chance that she'll ingest it but I'd feel a lot better with a 0% chance

[Sauzo]

Not sure how you would control a live rodent but for my redtail boa, I feed her fresh killed and I just hang it in front of her face and she grabs it, then I hold the tail and use a big shallow casserole type ceramic dish and plop her rat down in that and then shove her upper half of her body in there. Definitely not the norm but my red tail is so used to me that I could pick her completely up and she would continue to eat. I'm hoping to "train" the bp into the same style feeding but since she is so new, I use paper towels as my substrate and just watch her so she doesn't get the paper towel wrapped up with the rat since eating a paper towel can easily kill a snake from the impaction.

Also if you are using something like finely shredded aspen or eco earth I wouldn't worry. Now if you are using something like Reptibark which is pretty "chunky" and has big pieces, ingesting a bunch of those might be a problem. But you also got to remember, in the wild they ingest all sorts of stuff with their prey. Ours aren't wild but their bodies still function the same when it comes to ingesting a piece or 2 of substrate.

[DVirginiana]

Hm.. I can't control the live mice, but she's got a very healthy feeding response, so they don't last long. I use cypress mulch, but I'm wondering if just placing a large piece of newspaper over her substrate before dropping the mouse in would work? For some reason I was thinking newspaper and paper towels weren't enough to distance her from the heat pad? If they're an acceptable substrate I'd love to use them for her, as they're miracle bedding for all my other snakes.

Part of the reason I'm so paranoid is that one of my snakes is blind and will try to eat anything that even remotely smells like food, including substrate. Ever since seeing him grab a piece of carefresh and having to wrestle it out of his mouth I'm always worried something like that will happen again

[Sauzo]

Lol, now that would be a sight, no pun intended You could use newspaper but the problem is the live mouse will run all over so I doubt it will stay on the newspaper. Now if your snake is like my redtail boa, you can let her grab the mouse and constrict it, then move her upper half with the mouse onto the newspaper. Newspaper is better imo than paper towels for feeding on as the newspaper is stiffer and stays flat while paper towels like to ball up and stuff and if it smells like a mouse, the snake might try to eat that with the mouse.

Cypress mulch should be fine. I never used it but I was always afraid there might be some prison shanks in there in the form of sharp long splinters but again I have never personally used it. I use Zoo Med finely shredded aspen. Its more expensive but its really soft and packs down nicely.

[DVirginiana]

Yeah, once she grabs it she won't let go until the mouse has been eaten, so I could probably move her over once she's got it. I may try eco-earth or aspen next cage-cleaning. I already have to buy the cocofiber in large quantities, so one extra cage wouldn't be a problem.

[Sauzo]

I used to use eco earth for humidity purposes but it is such a mess. I had the stuff everywhere. Its like sand, you somehow find it in your cooler, on the hotdogs, on the buns, in your shorts, shoes everywhere. I ditched it since im using a Proline cage and with a slightly larger water dish, I easily maintain 60%+ humidity. I use aspen now, looks much better imo and makes cleaning every 2-3 months MUCH easier as I just scoop it out since it packs down nicely, then hit the cage with the vacuum, then spray it all down with chlorhexadine and back in with fresh aspen. Just remember aspen will mold if it gets wet so personally I wouldn't spray it down. Eco earth though is opposite and if you allow it to dry out, it gets really dusty.

[DVirginiana]

I may have to give the aspen a try. The cypress mulch tends to get packed down so she can't really burrow well in it, so I'm sure she'd appreciate something burrow-friendly.