What are the symptoms of substrate impaction?

[CoolioTiffany]

The first time we got him to eat, he MAY have eaten some substrate (I no longer feed in his home with aspen).

All snakes housed in loose substrate will always swallow some amount of the substrate, but not a huge amount to become impacted. A snake would have to swallow a pretty large amount of substrate to be able to become impacted, although their stomach acids are so strong that those small pieces of substrate normally will not cause impaction.

You do not have to feed him outside of the enclosure, that just adds on to stress and raises the chance of the snake refusing the meal. I would suggest to keep feeding him in his enclosure so he is less stressed on feeding days, and don't feel any worry that he will become impacted. You can even place a paper towel down and have him eat on the paper towel if that makes you feel more comfortable.

Joe gave a pretty good answer. I'll add in that snakes can go months without going to the bathroom and they will be just fine. On another website, someone's Blood python didn't go for 8 months and finally decided to let it go. So don't be worried if he isn't defecating, he will let it out when he really wants to.

If you are pretty paranoid about it still, you can give him a warm soak. The warm water helps bowel movements so he will most likely go when bathing.

[Azaria]

I have been trying to stick to mice the size of his thickest girth. I have never seen a small rat, so I don't know what is within his limits!

[joepythons]

I have been trying to stick to mice the size of his thickest girth. I have never seen a small rat, so I don't know what is within his limits!

The same comparison.My female eats rat pups the size just before they are old enough to be weaned.Since its feeding day tommorow i will try to remember to take a pic of her and her dinner so you can see

[Azaria]

You do not have to feed him outside of the enclosure, that just adds on to stress and raises the chance of the snake refusing the meal. I would suggest to keep feeding him in his enclosure so he is less stressed on feeding days, and don't feel any worry that he will become impacted. You can even place a paper towel down and have him eat on the paper towel if that makes you feel more comfortable.

Currently, he refuses to touch frozen/thawed mice, so I am worried about feeding him live in his cage, or having to keep nudging the mouse in the right direction if I were to just lay something down over the substrate.. the first time, I couldn't keep the mouse in the tongs. I have been hoping to slowly get him into eating off tongs before I can switch to f/t... I don't know how much I should worry about a feeding reaction in his home, and he reacts really nicely when I scent the feeding tank with a mouse in a cricket box.

[Azaria]

The same comparison.My female eats rat pups the size just before they are old enough to be weaned.Since its feeding day tommorow i will try to remember to take a pic of her and her dinner so you can see

Thanks! That'd be great!

[cinderbird]

He will poo when he needs to .I only find the white clump(bone stuff) in my 09 normal females enclosure because she absorbs the whole meal

are you referring to urates here? Because those aren't bone.. they're solid uric acid / urea . (the stuff that makes up the non water part of urine). A lot of reptiles create solid urates as a method to conserve water. It has nothing to do with bone, as all the bones are broken down. Go through a poo, you'll find hair and maybe some bits of bone, teeth and claws.

[Azaria]

I was under the impression that besides urates, there are meat poops, and calcium poops.

[BPelizabeth]

Like others stated they can go months prior to poo-ing. Do not worry about the substrate as this happened to ours when they were on a loose substrate. We did end up putting down paper towels prior to feeding and that worked awesome for us. Loose substrate was a pain in the bootey on feeding day as we were picking stuff out of there mouth with a missed strike. I might suggest prekilling right before giving i to the snake...that way you can control that it will be on the paper towel. Hope that helps.

[joepythons]

are you referring to urates here? Because those aren't bone.. they're solid uric acid / urea . (the stuff that makes up the non water part of urine). A lot of reptiles create solid urates as a method to conserve water. It has nothing to do with bone, as all the bones are broken down. Go through a poo, you'll find hair and maybe some bits of bone, teeth and claws.

Ok i thought it was bone leftovers .I will take your word as i really dont want to sift thru poo to find out

[771subliminal]

I am worried about feeding him live in his cage, or having to keep nudging the mouse in the right direction

you dont have to worry about giving the mouse any direction, even if it stayed on the other side of the cage the whole time your snake would smell it and find it. they are great hunters