Fear of Impaction

[kraniumz]

I was feeding my juve bp a good size mouse and everything was going smoothly. Then i noticed he was struggling to finish the last 1/3 of the mouse and i realized that it was a piece of fir bark (about 2/3 the size of its head!) that somehow got attached to the mouse's leg. I quickly seized the bp and tried to remove the bark but at this point the bark was already in the mounth. I held the mouse's tail and tried to pull it out but the bp wanted none of that. Fearing of injuring my snake, i let it consumed the mouse. I have emptied its cage and repalced with newspaper to monitor its poop and all.

I am really worried now. I know you cannot do much now but wait. I hate this kind of situation! I read soemwhere that feeding a mouse that has been injected with vegetable oil might help with digestion. What are your thoughts ?

[new2BP]

not really sure what will happen, but i think i will continue to use a substrate that eleminates the worry of this happening to me.

[frankykeno]

I'm not at all sure what will happen, hopefully someone more experienced will comment.

What I would suggest is what we do now that we use a loose substrate. We just pop in a pad of newspaper over the central area of the snake's enclosure and feed there. Then after the snake's all done and moved off we just remove the newspaper. Doesn't seem to bother the snakes and cuts down on the worry of ingesting a bit of substrate with their mouse/rat.


~~Jo~~

[daniel1983]

The piece of substrate will most likely be digested. Remember, snakes don't get clean surfaces to eat off of in the wild...they evolved to handle digesting the random leaves and twigs that may get ingested when feeding. However, I would write down the date that the substrate ingestion happened and monitor the next 'poop' just to make sure.

[kraniumz]

Thx for the replies folks. Well i never had this problem before, i guess its a lesson learnt. This little guy does really act clumsy at times, i guess i shall prepare his dining table for him next time

Good point Daniel, i was told by a pet dealer that it may be able to digest the bark. Fingers crossed.

[Adam_Wysocki]

The bark will be partially digested and the rest will pass. Like Daniel said, the snakes digestive acids are extremely powerful because they have to break down bone and the celluloid based contents of their preys stomachs.

As far as this goes ...

I read soemwhere that feeding a mouse that has been injected with vegetable oil might help with digestion. What are your thoughts ?

... I think the idea is a bad one.

Hope this helps.

-adam

[kraniumz]

Thx for the info Adam. I was really worried as i have never experienced my bps eating substrate. It is really comforting to know that he is gonna be fine.

In regards to the oil injection, i was never really sure about it. I was doing research and people seems to do it with impacted bearded dragons and boas. I wouldnt dare to experiment with it until i get confirmation from experience bp keepers here.

[blackhawk]

I have always fed my BP's in a seperate container. I place the snake and the mouse in a large tupperware container. They know when they are placed in the container that it is feeding time.

[jotay]

Mine gets pcs of reptibark on the mouse from time to time and it does pass.
I asked the same question of Adam and he told me the same thing and he was right, it seems to pass fine.
One strange thing that did happen and you may want to keep an eye out for is one night my bp's mouse did get a pc of bark on it and as he was swallowing the bark lodged sideways in his mouth almost like a bit on a horse.
He got the mouse down fine and luckly I don't just feed and leave I stay and watch until he settles back in his hide. Anyway he was in a real struggle to try and dislodge it . I gave him a few mins to see if he could do it on his own but he was exhausting himself trying so I grab him and w/ the help of my son held him down and opened his mouth and took some tweezers and plucked it out. I swear I think he smiled at me when I got it out
Then of course I emailed Adam to see if there was anything I needed to be on the look out for ( Thank goodness for Adam!)
Ozzy is fine and all is well but when I hear people feed in cage on substrate I try to make them aware.

[kraniumz]

I used to feed in seperate cage but it has been quite a hastle to transfer 3 snakes around and i hate to put em on stress. Since then i switched to room service and i always watch them eating. That one incident happened because i couldnt see the bark under the red light, until it was about to reach the throat!!