Snake and mouse wrapped up in a napkin

[formica]

it is very similar to ingesting a large fern leaf, or moss clump, or newspaper, or its own tail...new snake keepers need to know that they should be keeping an eye on feeds, regardless of the substrate, then things like that would never happen, regardless.

[Terranaut]

I am yet to see a fern leaf or moss clump full of bleach and glue. it is not the same. Yes you should always watch but the best way to avoid this situation is not to feed on paper towel. This is what the thread is about... not due diligence.

[Zelg]

Wow, that picture is disgusting as hell but I really appreciate you posting it. I am totally convinced now to not feed on paper towels/napkins anymore. While I absolutely observe the feeding each time, my experience this last time was more stress that I want to put on the snake, obviously. I'll go ahead and do its next feeding inside his enclosure.

Thanks for both of your guy's posts.

[formica]

Zelg, fair enough on your decision, glad you and your snake got thru the ordeal! I know its scary to see things like that going on for the first time, and not being sure what to do to deal with it

Originally Posted by Terranaut

I am yet to see a fern leaf or moss clump full of bleach and glue. it is not the same. Yes you should always watch but the best way to avoid this situation is not to feed on paper towel. This is what the thread is about... not due diligence.

i've used paper towel in quarantine for years, never had a snake swallow it, I prefer it to newspaper, because I have no idea what is in the inks used on them, and that stuff comes off all over the place

bleach, or chlorine, evaporates very quickly, it doesn't remain inside the paper towel after it has been whitened, can you imagine the trouble we'd have with toilet paper if it did? eek. well some weirder parts of the cosmetic industry would be out of work lol

I think this is as much about paper towel, as it is about due diligence tbh

a large matted piece of moss, could easily cause a serious impaction if it was ingested (i'm not talking about a single strand, i'm talking about a piece on par with the size of paper towel, as may be found in many a natural or live planted setup)

...the number of potential problems are endless, and as long as ''due diligence'' is done, then all of them can be avoided. no point blaming the substrate, for human error, if the snake eats it!

[Terranaut]

Once again either yoir arguing for the sake of arguing or you misread the op's original question. Try real hard now.... its easy....stay on topic. The topic is paper towel and feeding....not forest floor and quarentine. Not once did anyone say not to use it as substrate, just do not feed on it. Newspaper does not have the same properties as paper towel. Also nobody said not to watch the snake feed, I said not to do it on paper towel. Moss will not stick to prey like paper towel. Paper towels are their own entity. Once again feel free to post any factual data on snake deaths due to any substrate ingestion. And you wonder why there was so much "freaking out" ? Maybe ask the owner of the poor snake in the photo. It was to leave the proper info and not to derail a thread and mix words like "feeding" and "quarantine" when one is clearly different from the other. Do you feed on paper towel?

[formica]

why are you being rude?

people use paper towel as quarantine substrate all the time, are you suggesting that they should then remove the snake from its enclosure to feed it?

Yes, if I have a snake in quarantine, it will most likley have paper towel as a substrate, and it will get fed a dry mouse on said substrate. have always done it like that, and have never had a problem with it, as I said above.

if the snake has already started swallowing the paper towel, then the owner has already failed. as I implied above. the two topics are not separate just because you demand that they be so.


i'm sure you are not suggesting that a snake can digest a clump of moss the size of a paper towel...? for sure small bits and pieces of vegetation/substrate are not an issue, but thats not what I was talking about, and i did make that clear.

[red ink]

If paper towel is ingested... just tear it off before the snake ingest the whole thing in large quantities... like the pictured snake regurge. Whole lot of papaer towel there... where the heck was the owner?


Key being... supervised feeding.

Small amounts wont hurt, over indulgence... well as with anything, over indulgence is bad. Specially with paper towels lol.

I feed my hatchlings on paper towels... substrate in their hatchling tubs.

Tip:

When the snake strikes the prey, wiggle it until it wraps three coils around it. Then lift up the prey item, snake included to make sure no paper towels is caught in the coils. If any is caught simply tear it off to where its caught. Easy preventative measure from ingesting paper towels in large quantities..

[lady_bug87]

I quarantine on paper towel. I feed on newspaper I have never had this happen.

I dry the rats well and I watch until I'm confident nothing can go wrong. Then I leave. It's all about watching what's going on

[Mikoh4792]

You can use unprinted newspaper. It doesn't get snapped by teeth like papertowel does.

[franks]

I use packing paper at Home Depot. It is large enough where it is impossible for the snake to constrict and consume.

[KORBIN5895]

I feed all of my snakes wet prey. I just drop it in and walk away. I feed on newspaper and cocohusk.