I Am Sooooo Mad!!!!

[abcat1993]

How long does it take your snakes to eat a pinkie? mine has been "eating" it for over five minutes now and has made almost no progress

[abcat1993]

Oh great, it spit it out. Mybe I should try a smaller one or chop it up. could I chop it up after it is thawed?

[Thamnophis]

I know that lots of people use aspen bedding for their snakes. But mostly this are mouse-eating snakes like Pantherophis, Elaphe, Pithuophis, etc.

I do not know if aspen bedding is hard or soft, but when it is hard (and sharp) I would not use it, because this can damage their esophagus, stomach or intestines.
It is unavoidable that some of the bedding gets in the snake with its food.
I can not judge if this is bad in the case of aspen because I have never used it (or held it in my hands).

I personally use woodchips that are used for rodents etc.
I like this stuff. It has never given me any problems. Only important condition is that it is free of dust.
Sometimes a little piece of the woodchips are accidentally eaten bij the snakes, but I have never seen any constipation.

I have also used potting soil and this also gave no problems when it was digested.

[CrazyHedgehog]

I thaw them all out... cut a few small ones up and mix it with chopped trout (fishy and bloody gunk.. yuk..) for the very small ones...

[Thamnophis]

When I used the potting soil, I did not cook ar heat it.
Also don´t do that with branches and so. I only scrub them with warm water.

[abcat1993]

Well, I just wanted to say that my snake has eaten her(?) first mouse. I put her in a plastic container with two halves of a mouse and a worm. When I checked back, everything was gone and the snake escaped into it's cage (the plastic container was in her cage and the lid wasn't all the way closed).

[Cazador]

Congratulations on your success, Matt. Great job. It was wise to have the container in her cage on your first attempt.
Rick

[Thamnophis]

That's great. Feeding in a container is a good solution to prevent that the snake eats the soil.