Reptile & Amphibian Forums

is it really that big of a deal if my snake eat a small flake of wood chip? i mean its really so small that i really cant see any damage done to the snake if he eat one or two flakes with his food but let me know

No its not a big deal.

I have been feeding hundreds of snakes on aspen and cypress mulch for 15 years and never ever had a single problem.

In the wild snakes would ingest bits of dirt/gravel/sand/ and who knows what else. Come on...We are talking about an animal whose digestive system pulverizes bone, and people worry about a flake of aspen. hahahahaha.

I will add one note... I used to keep humidity loving snakes on coconut coir substrate (the dirt that comes in a brick) Twice over the years I found dead hatchlings (both rainbow boas) with their mouths stuffed with expanded coir. I will never know if the coir caused thier death of if in the throws of death they sinply got crap in their mouths. I don't use this anymore for small snakes.

Personally, I don't feed on substrate at all. While some people do it without a problem, there is always the risk of impaction (if the substrate is ingested) and the problems that might come from a splinter in the mouth. I'm also trying to break the record of oldest kingsnake, which is why Doug and the other gurus on this forum have to put up with my stupid questions. I want to see Zorro as an old maid. LOL.

Unlike lizards and mammals whose gut is long, thin and curvy, a snakes digestive system is wide and straight. If you could show me evidence of a single snake that has gotten "impacted" I would be impressed.

I have personally witnessed snakes swallow chunks of aspen and cypress mulch and then put them on newspaper to see what comes out. The answer...nothing. The snakes digestion completely broke down all traces of wood.

In fact I would argue that feeding outside the cage only adds stress to meal time. It may work just fine for animals that are tame and used to being handled/moved/fed outside the cage, but it stops other animals from eating all together. I have met several people who had the best of intentions and were trying to make their snakes "tame" by feeding in a separate container. why did they come see me? Because their new snakes weren't eating! As soon as they left food in the cage overnight... surprise surprise

My point in that last post was this: I would rather be safe than sorry. I know it's cliche, but IMO, it's better to try and avoid possible problems. And as Patton said, of the things to worry about, ingesting substrate is quite at the bottom of the list.

I too have always fed on shredded aspen with no problems whatsoever-this after over 25 years and literally hundreds of snakes. If you want to worry about something, there are a LOT of more likely dangers to dwell on ...
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

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Work is the curse
of the drinking class!

Agreed. All my snakes are fed on aspen in their cages with no problems after 20 some-odd years, except for when I attempted Jetzen-esque shots of in hand feeding, lol. If your snake is dear to you or a specifically expensive breeder, then maybe I would rethink. All my snakes are special, don't get me wrong, but if I spent a thousand on one then maybe I would be more cautious....nah! They eat wood and dirt in the wild all the time, and grass and twigs, etc. just my .02.

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Todd Hughes

Well, there's not a real definitive yes/no answer as to feeding on Aspen, or any wood substrate for that matter. I've been feeding snakes on wood substrates for 41 years now, and I've never ever had any problems either, but then again, I generally keep an eye on things as everyone is eating their meals, and take care not to let them gulp down pieces of wood in the process by re-positioning them sometimes, or by using long tongs from time to time.

Of course snakes ingest foreign materials while eating in the wild all the time, certainly no disputing that,.....also, I'm sure many wild snakes also die from time to time too from a foreign object causing problems. Most of the time, a substrate flake or two will do nothing at all to the snake, and become mush along with everything else passing the intestinal tract, but if you really think about it, any potential wood swollowing problem depends on many many factors,....i.e. what shape was it, how hard was it, was there a very sharp point, what position did it go down in, if lodged, where, etc...

Like I said, I've been feeding on wood chips for many decades, but am really careful about any actually being ingested, and of course the extremely large percentage of snakes in everyone's collections does pretty well feeding on Aspen, etc..., but nobody can deny that there CAN'T be, or WON'T ever be a problem,...and if there was, would that person just figure the snake died from another cause,.....because unless you did an exploratory necropsy, you would never know what caused the snake to die,...be it wrongly positioned sharp wood chip puncturing the intestinal lining, or whatever, so who would really be able to say unless all this was done?

I think I will always keep an eye on things, instead of just throwing a meal in, closing the lid, and letting the snake munch on a ton of substrate. To me, I would just rather be a little on the safer side, than the other way around. But certainly not knocking anyone who does differently.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

thanx guys for all the help... yea when i feed i keep a close eye on him while he eats and when he eats he maybe eats one super small flake if at all every once in awhile so i dont htink its a problem

as you can see there is some experience on both sides of the question at hand.
my first hypo brooks female was a nice orange girl that had about 50% striping. I was so stoked to get her to breed. One day she skipped a meal, next week she was dead. I cut her open to find a colon full of wood chips. so ever since then I have used some sort of bowl or box for the snakes to feed in. since now that all the ones I keep are primarily fossorial, its no big deal to get them to get down into a box to eat.
bottom line is it doesn't matter what anyine else does, you have to do what's best for your collection. if you have a bunch of sloppy eaters that drag their prey through the substrate, you may want to do something. If it seems to be a one time incident, then don't worry.

daveb

Good answer Dave, I do have a few that will inevitably drag the mouse through the water bowl, thus soaking the prey item and getting aspen stuck on it. I watch my feedings pretty closely, especially the young ones. I don't have any trouble with the more arboreal type rats, they drag em up but the kings wrap and pin, most mice barely touch the floor before being wrapped!
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Todd Hughes