just my two cents... I will always feed outside it's home environment into a feeding tub, for one reason above all others, the possibility of the snake striking at it's prey and grab a bunch of bedding, a friend of mine had his for quite a while, always fed it in its home environment and the snake had lodged whatever the bedding was in the roof of its mouth, got an infection and eventually died. I'm sure there may of been ways to treat the snake...maybe he couldn't afford but the point being the initial threat.

maybe he had said he had a type of gravel as the bedding,, i use the reptibark and could see that being a hazard as well, maybe other types of bedding wouldn't cause an issue eitherway, it would be a different story if the snake's home environment was bedded with newspaper, but i'd still worry then about it associating me opening its lid with food, rather than it associating the box i put them in to feed with food.