BP ate some substrate

[Dvas_Romeo]

Would there be generally less incidents of substrate ingestion with feeding live prey on cypress mulch in comparison to feeding f/t (when wet/moist)?

[missi182]

Cypress mulch is a very good substrate but many people do not use it because it costs alot if you have a large collection. CEDAR on the other hand is the big no no for bedding as it is toxic.

Personally I do not use live prey, and if your BP is already eating thawed, it is much more intelligent to keep it that way. Live mice or rats can cause serious damage to a snake VERY quickly. For example if the snake were to strike and coil around the wrong end, the head of the mouse could bite and knaw at the snake enough to do damage before it would die. To any others that do use live, I am not telling you to change, this is just my opinion.

So I would just say, as funny as it sounds, serve your F/T "prey" on a platter for your snake, which could be anything from paper towel to a nice flat rock. If you are concerned about the snake moving once he has begun to eat, put his meal in a plastic container in the tank.

[Dvas_Romeo]

Opinions aside regarding live vs. f/t and substrate type, would feeding live on cypress generally pose less ingestion issues than feeding wet/moist f/t prey on cypress?

[reptile3]

Cypress mulch is perfectly fine...

Thank you, I had no idea...

[missi182]

Opinions aside regarding live vs. f/t and substrate type, would feeding live on cypress generally pose less ingestion issues than feeding wet/moist f/t prey on cypress?

Feeding live might make substrate less likely to be injested because F/T prey just sits on the substrate(if you dont put something under it) while live are on all fours but that may not stop a bp from striking the prey and catching some substrate in the process. But please if you are feeding thawed, don't switch to live. It looks cool but so many bad things can happen. If you want to its your choice but look up what can happen on google.

[MelissaFlipski]

For reference, I recently posted this thread:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=60878
Sounds to me like we should worry. Maybe switching to newspaper is worth it. Put a dimmer/rheostat on the UTH to prevent burns.
Melissa