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How not to feed your corn snake

blueapplepaste said:
However, deliberately ignoring advice or keeping your corn (or any animal) in in a sub standard way once you know better is absolutely unacceptable.
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100% agreed, but (and there always seems to be a but!) how many actual impactions have people experienced feeding on aspen or other substrate? Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying it's not a problem, and I know it can and does happen. I just happen to have not had the experience in 15+ years of keeping snakes on pine (back in the day), aspen, or bark.

Common sense would seem to dictate that those with larger collections cannot afford, with their time, to either feed in separate containers, or watch every snake fully consume their entire meal. Quite honestly, I can only recall hearing about one serious impaction by a snake . . . and unfortunately it belonged to Shep's who happened to be feeding his boa on paper towels!

That being said, one snake in the collection could/should probably be fed in a separate container or in a plastic dish in the cage, etc. But, as far as I'm concerned it wasn't an 'oh, that poor mistreated snake' video. One snake in a collection being fed on substrate isn't any different than 1 snake in a collection of 23or59or380 being fed on substrate. Any one or all have the risk of being impacted which leads back to just how many snakes out of the thousands/millions have ever knowingly died from the problem?

I think there are much much worse transgressions being committed by herp (and other) pet owners than what was displayed in the video. :shrugs:
D80
 
PS. Anyone have any information on just how powerful the digestive juices of a snake are? I mean they dissolve bone! With fish, it's recommended that you cut the line if they swallow the hook as their digestive juices will break down and fully dissolve the hook and more damage will be done trying to pull it out. :shrugs:

Also, I think the greater fear of swallowing substrate is not so much impaction as laceration of the esophogus?? Which would beg the question of substrate type - ie. large aspen chips vs. shredded vs. soft bark vs. etc?

D80
 
Drizzt80 said:
100% agreed, but (and there always seems to be a but!) how many actual impactions have people experienced feeding on aspen or other substrate? Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying it's not a problem, and I know it can and does happen. I just happen to have not had the experience in 15+ years of keeping snakes on pine (back in the day), aspen, or bark.

Common sense would seem to dictate that those with larger collections cannot afford, with their time, to either feed in separate containers, or watch every snake fully consume their entire meal. Quite honestly, I can only recall hearing about one serious impaction by a snake . . . and unfortunately it belonged to Shep's who happened to be feeding his boa on paper towels!

That being said, one snake in the collection could/should probably be fed in a separate container or in a plastic dish in the cage, etc. But, as far as I'm concerned it wasn't an 'oh, that poor mistreated snake' video. One snake in a collection being fed on substrate isn't any different than 1 snake in a collection of 23or59or380 being fed on substrate. Any one or all have the risk of being impacted which leads back to just how many snakes out of the thousands/millions have ever knowingly died from the problem?

I think there are much much worse transgressions being committed by herp (and other) pet owners than what was displayed in the video. :shrugs:
D80
Click to expand...

Oh, I agree completely! I know that I used to feed in the cage with bedding, and they did swallow a piece or two. The LPS said that it was ok, and the snake always did seem ok. I personally don't have that much beef with the video. Again, keeping corns is a learning process.

My comment was not meant to suggest that he had been told to not feed on bedding and he still was. It was just a general comment on people who are told proper care for an animal and yet still refuse to do so.
 
I had a snake die from impaction from swallowing ONE small piece of that bark substrate. 2.5 foot snake, ---- piece of bark that size. Dead snake, and she seemed in a LOT of pain from it. Why take the chance?
 
As long as you understand that there is a chance of impaction and you watch out for it, feeding on substrate is not too bad. I always take my snakes out, but I only have two, not hundreds. At work one time, someone gave us a Green Tree Python. If you have ever seen one of these, you probably know that they don't have a best temperment. To feed it, I dropped in a small dish and put the food on that so that he wouldn't ingest substrate. A paper plate would have worked fine also. I just feel better knowing that they wont be ingesting any of the substrate.
 
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