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