Quote Originally Posted by jack jones View Post
I was just worried about all the stories about accidentally ingesting subtrate. He's in aspen shavings now with a layer of moss over half of it. Although I suppose if I'm feeding with tongs, the ingestion of substrate is less likely of an issue isn't it? That probably applies more to food left on the ground floor of the tank.
There are no snake keepers that are in the wild to prevent ball pythons from eating all kinds of non intentional stuff. My ball python used to be on aspen, and he usually ingested quite a bit of substrate because of the fact that the damn stuff just sticks to the rat whenever the rat has water on it's coat. As long as it isn't a huge ball of it, it will not kill him.

The python has to digest bone, fur, claw and tooth material, a little bit of substrate will not harm him.