I've been using substrates ever since I've had snakes. I've used aspen, coco dirt, coco chips (reptichip) and a combination thereof.
Never had a problem. And I feed FT, so the rats are slightly wet. With the coco "earth/dirt" I had most of substrate "sticking" the the rat, but they most of it fell off while they ate and they always got the rest out of their mouth.
With Aspen and the Coco mixes, the pieces don't seem to stick to the rat much, the ones that do fall off as the snake works the rat into the mouth. There were 2 instances in 6 years of aspen where I noticed a piece stuck out of the mouth. I removed it, but they most likely would have gotten it out themselves. It wasn't "stuck" like a splinter, it got soft from the saliva, it was just stuck between teeth and lip.
With Reptichip I noticed the same thing once, but the snake got it out before I got to it.
I suppose if small pieces make it inside of the snake, its not big deal. They have powerful digestive juices that make short order of a pile of bones, so a small piece of soft substrate won't hurt.
The wood mulches always made me nervous because of the "splintery" looking pieces, but people have used those for years and years without problems, too !!
I'd say, try it out in one cage only for a couple of months, through some feedings and cleanings, and see how you like it
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