Bedding

[Sue Glue]

Hi I had my ball python on kitchen towel in her RUB but have now put her into a wooden viv the petstore sold me lignocel for the bedding but did notice when feeding her yesterday she ate some of this as it got stuck to the rat. What's people's opinions on bedding please.

[MarkS]

I have no idea what lignocel is, but I keep my snakes on unprinted newspaper. I've also had success with shredded aspen. Swallowing any particulate substrate can happen. Yes it CAN cause an impaction but that is very rare and much more likely to happen in younger animals with smaller digestive systems, personally I think it's so rare that it's not worth worrying about. If you are concerned you can always feed your snake on a paper towel or paper plate so that particles of substrate don't stick. Some people may recommend feeding in a different enclosure but that can cause other problems and I don't recommend it.

[Sauzo]

I use aspen for all my snakes and I just feed them on paper plates or for my big one, I just use an old ceramic rectangular 1 inch high casserole dish type thing which keeps out aspen and she can enjoy her rat. It also keeps blood off the aspen when she gets excited and squeezes the rat a little too much And yes my snakes have swallowed a piece of aspen here and there with no problems. Gotta remember, in the wild they would probably swallow a lot more stuff on their food than a little piece of aspen