You mean like impaction from swallowing bits of aspen or pine while eating?Originally Posted by SCWood
It possibly can be for small snakes, although it is extremely rare. They've evolved over tens of millions of years to successfully eat off the jungle floor which is covered in all kinds of undigestible crap. If hatchlings had any sort of common issue swallowing undigestible bits of junk, there wouldn't be a lot of BP's in the world. My hatchlings have gotten mouthfuls of pine while eating and are fine. But if it's going to be an issue, the smaller, younger snakes are where it will be more likely to happen.
Older snakes it can happen, but I've only heard (or read) account where it happened due to another underlying issue with their system, not due strictly to swallowing a mouthful of substrate, and even those cases are incredibly rare from what I've seen.
They also don't need help cleaning bits of junk out of their teeth. They know how to rub their mouths until they get the bits out if needed.
Simply put, for my own self and my own snakes, it is nothing that I worry about at all, not even for very young/small hatchlings.
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