Okay, after a drama free snake year the drama is piling on heavy as of late. Had to split them up (accidental breeding) and got a fresh delivery of frozen pinkies tonight. Decided for the first time the male (well they WERE both males until a few days ago) could eat off a plate (instead of in a glass fishbowl).

He grabs a mouthful of pinky pieces and starts thrashing in the aspen shavings (yes he is a thrasher, but in a glass fish bowl it wasn't a problem). Suddenly he has a ton of substrate sticking to the pinkie pieces and I open the cage and grab him to fix the situation and he swallows (wells tries to swallow, took him over 2 minutes of fussing with a big lump in his throat).

Lordy how much substrate can a 1 year old garter digest before this is a fatal problem? (From now on he either goes back in the glass fish bowl or eats on a ton of paper).

PS he ate a few more mouthfuls of pinky after the substrate issue and now seems to be breathing heavily, or maybe he isn't and I am just freaking out a bit and imagining things here.