Feeding

[Rushthezeppelin]

They also tend to try and eat with their head held up above the substrate, unless you give them a worm that's decent sized for them, then they wrestle it all over w/e enclosure you have them in. That's why when I have a separate feeding enclosure for my checkered in my main viv with ecoearth.

[Zdravko092368]

It's always good to be on the side of safety for the animal. Having said that, I would repeat that snakes young and old are pretty good at deciphering whats edible and what's not. Occaisionally pieces of substrate can inadvertently be ingested. They try everyway possible to dispel foreign pieces from their mouths.

I have witnessed this quite a bit, while eating as some substrate starts to get on the side of their mouth they will wipe their face along the ground or a rock to try and get it off. Seems more common with adults than the young however.

[Albert Clark]

I have witnessed this quite a bit, while eating as some substrate starts to get on the side of their mouth they will wipe their face along the ground or a rock to try and get it off. Seems more common with adults than the young however.

And how they not only move forward and backwards in their attempts to remove the foreign body but also sideways and up and down. I think this is just instinctual behavior in a attempt to wrestle any moving prey and give the duvernoys gland a chance to become activated but also to dispel foreign bodies from being swallowed.