Cause for concern?

[EasternGirl]

Last night I decided to feed Cee Cee with hemostats since I recently changed her substrate to reptibark and ecofresh. It was either feed her with hemostats or move her to the feeding tank...and since she takes the food by hemostats I figured it was good to feed her that way because it seems to be building more trust for her. She was doing fine but then she took her last piece of pinky and drug it down into the substrate...I didn't have time to get it away from her (nor did I really want to put my fingers in there and try to take it out of her mouth) and I think there may have been a little bit of wood on it when she ate it. Now I am very worried that she could get an intestinal obstruction. What do you guys think??? I should be concerned...right?

[Bart]

Nah, snakes do it all the time in nature. A piece of wood isn't as dangerous as sand or a rock.

[guidofatherof5]

Not much you can do at this point.
No need to worry about it now.
Can you post a photo of the same sized piece?

[RedSidedSPR]

Nah, snakes do it all the time in nature. A piece of wood isn't as dangerous as sand or a rock.

Not true, actually. A small bit of Aspen can lead to death by impaction.:rolleyes:

[EasternGirl]

Probably not because my camera is on the fritz....but it was attached to half of a pinky and it was smaller than that. I couldn't see well enough to be sure of everything that was attached. She had half of the piece of pinky in her mouth and the other half, she drug in the substrate...I know some substrate was on it...but I couldn't see exactly what was on it because she had moved behind the glass. I just know that I saw some wood shavings on it and I think I saw a piece about the size of my pinky finger nail attached to the food. What are signs of intestinal obstruction?

[EasternGirl]

Okay...I am changing back to carefresh!

[Bart]

Jesse, you're right, it MIGHT be dangerous. My point is that a piece of wood isn't as dangerous as sand or a rock or something like that.

[RedSidedSPR]

Jesse, you're right, it MIGHT be dangerous. My point is that a piece of wood isn't as dangerous as sand or a rock or something like that.

Depends on the wood. If a piece of reptibark gets ingested that can be VERY bad. But yeah, you're right for the most part.

[EasternGirl]

Okay...well now that I am completely terrified...what can I do???

[PINJOHN]

at the moment i have my snakes on reptibark i do occasionally swap the substrate as the mood takes me, i feed in the viv's so i do occasionally spot stuff adhering to the food but the snakes seem to manipulate the food so that it separates and falls off,... never had a problem with impaction that i know of, the positive thing about a site like this is obtaining info from other keepers and hearing about their problems and the outcomes, but the negative side to it, is believing that these things are more common than they actually are, SO my solution is take a chill pill stop bloody worrying and go and do the dishes !NOW!

[snakehill]

Hey John! You forgot to tell Jesse to shaddup! :p

[EasternGirl]

Lol John....um...do you think I seem like the type of woman that does dishes??? You come and do the dishes for me mister! Now!!!

[RedSidedSPR]

I feed with hemostats, on reptibark. Never had a problem, as the pieces are to big to really stick to food.

[EasternGirl]

Most of the pieces are big...but there are small pieces too...shavings and stuff. She doesn't usually take her food and drag it away. She was sitting on top of her log eating from the hemostats and then all of the sudden she took a piece and drug it off over to the other side of her tank into the wood. I have no idea what that was about.

[RedSidedSPR]

Mine has no small shavings or anything.. My snakes can drag the food through it without a problem.

Your snake will probably be fine, though, if it wasn't much

[EasternGirl]

She seems perfectly fine right now and she is a pretty big girl. Steve told me to watch her poop for a few days...fun!

[ConcinusMan]

You said "ecofresh" but I'm going to assume you meant "ecoearth". I've had snakes swallow that before and it passes fine. As far as small pieces of bark go, that can be dangerous, but as was stated earlier, it usually falls off in the process of swallowing. Even if it doesn't, if the piece is small enough, it could be passed. Luckily, neither of those two substrates swells after being swallowed. The snake would have to swallow a piece just big enough to block the intestine, without noticing. They will usually notice a piece that size and wipe it off or knock it off the food while swallowing. Any pieces of bark small enough that the snake doesn't notice, will usually pass through. Don't worry too much about it Marnie. I've had it happen to me too and nothing became of it. I can tell you that worrying won't help. Chances are good that you'll worry for nothing. We should avoid letting them swallow substrate, but just because she did this time, doesn't mean she's doomed.:cool:

[EasternGirl]

Thanks Richard....and yes, I meant ecoearth :).

[RedSidedSPR]

Ecoearth is MUCH safer to ingest. In fact, if it's small, it's usually not a problem at all.