I'd let her worry about things if she grabs it in the wrong place or ingests aspen, etc. I keep my sand boas on aspen (and my hognose) and have never had an ingestion problem with either (and the boas actually drag their prey under the aspen). I've also had numerous feeds where the snake grabs the wrong end or the middle,etc. They typically get it sorted out.

What's really fun is when you can't get your hognose to feed and have a hopper leftover... and give it to your 4' boa. It's fun to watch the thought process of the snake.. Whenever this happens he tries to coil (like you said), then figures it out in about 1 minute or so and just swallows.

I am going to try chicks with my guy next week... It'll be interesting as they are about 1/2 the size of his normal prey (sm / med. rats).