What did I do??

[SCWood]

My boy was eating and a lot of people on here suggested trying in his cage, especially since I didn't know his background, so I did and...he had a huge mouthful of eco Earth so I had to scoop it put and now he's eating the rat but I'm super worried he ingested some! Is it bad for him?

1.2 Normal
1.1 Red-tail
0.1 Albino corn

[Eric Alan]

He'll be fine. I'm not a huge fan of "in the wild" reasoning, but it's not like they have had friendly humans watching them eat throughout their evolutionary history.

[magicmed]

As long as he doesn't get a lot of it on a frequent basis he should be just fine. Eco earth boasts that it's digestible, you just don't want them chowing down on it. I use eco earth as my topsoil in loki's enclosure, if you feed frozen/prekilled feed him on the center of a paper plate/piece of cardboard. It cuts down on substrate injestion a ton. I'm sure you could apply the same strategy if you feed live by placing the pray in a tupperware in his tank?

[SCWood]

He'll be fine. I'm not a huge fan of "in the wild" reasoning, but it's not like they have had friendly humans watching them eat throughout their evolutionary history.

Thank you :/ after he finished, I opened his mouth and he allowed me to scoop the rest out. He continued opening and closing his mouth for a few minutes and now he is back to normal and roaming his cage. :3 positive thinking!

[bcr229]

In the wild I'm sure they eat quite a bit of dirt, they're not presented with clean feeders regularly.

If you're worried about it in the future put some newspaper or a plastic plate on top of the eco earth and feed on that.

[PitOnTheProwl]

229 hit it on the head there.
Just remember its all good, there is a lot that they do in the wild that would freak us out.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

They digest meat, fur, bones, claws and teeth a little substrate is not gonna do anything.

I have been feeding HUNDREDS of animals each week over the years on aspen and I am sure they have swallowed some.

[SCWood]

Thank you all so much! I am receiving a lot of hate from the people I live with for doing this My fiancee won't even talk to me. She is horrified and says I'm going to make her snake cage aggressive and now she will never be able to hold him. KEEP IN MIND, I touched the rat with my hands to entice him after he let it go and didn't eat right away, and he showed no signs of biting. He calmly let me stick a moist towl in his mouth to remove the gunk and then promptly resumed eating. Aggressive my rear end!

[PitOnTheProwl]

Tell her to quit watching animal planet

[magicmed]

Thank you all so much! I am receiving a lot of hate from the people I live with for doing this My fiancee won't even talk to me. She is horrified and says I'm going to make her snake cage aggressive and now she will never be able to hold him. KEEP IN MIND, I touched the rat with my hands to entice him after he let it go and didn't eat right away, and he showed no signs of biting. He calmly let me stick a moist towl in his mouth to remove the gunk and then promptly resumed eating. Aggressive my rear end!

HognoseWash (had to lol) sapphire was fed for 10 years in her enclosure and never once attempted to strike me or anyone else. Maybe if you ONLY open the tank to feed. But if that's the case you have bigger problems than cage aggression. In MY experience, feeding in cage causing aggression is a total myth.