Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I use shredded aspen for my desert king, thyrie, hondurans and my mexican milk snakes. So far I have gotten a possitive feedback from my previous post. But is aspen safe and reccomended for baby to adult balls? I just want my new addition to be as happy as I am

Yes, it's safe as long as you feed your snake in a seperate container. Don't want him swallowing any of that stuff, just to be safe. I've been using aspen since I've had my BP and I've had him over a year now.

Do you use shredded aspen Mighty? Thats the most readily available in my area and thats what all of my corns and kings use. Is there much of a diffrence with shredded or chips? Or are they the same?

DO NOT feed in another enclosure. This peeves me and I do not know who started this "urban myth". Removing an animal to feed it subjects it to more stress and also exposes the keeper to possible SFE (stupid feeding errors). You should be able to feed any snake in its own enclosure without any problems. I have raised ball pythons for over 15years on aspen, newspaper and astro turf without any problems and I fed them in their own enclosures without problems as well as many other species of snakes. I suspect the rumor of feeding in another cage started with someone who was communally keeping snakes (more than one per enclosure to avoid accidents. Since you should not house snakes together other than during breeding, you should never have to remove to another enclosure.

Impaction is caused by many factors such as dehydration, overly large undigestible matter and suboptimal temperatures. Aspen taken in small quantities (relative to size of snake) pass through their system fine. You need to be aware of the frequency of the bedding ingested, but for the most part, they should not be shoveling it in while eating the prey. I keep hatchlings, subadults and adults on aspen shavings or Sani-chip with no problems. When you take a look at the size of their fecal discharge you will understand what it takes to block them up. Sorry for the rant, it is just a pet peeve of mine.

Question..
I have heard they is wise to remove the snake from its enclosure when feeding this lets the snake know its being fed when it is placed in its feeding area, and not when your just taking out the snake to clean or handel it. If I didn't take my boa out to feed her and fed her in her enclosure I would get bit when I put my hands to clean or pick her up, they don't know the different un less there removed.
This is common sense is it not?

My .02 worth