My Carpet ate some Repti Bark

[mazzarella]

Will she be OK? I feed my Stimmy in a seperate tub but princess is usually in her tree. Tonight she fell down , popped her rat open and therefore ate a gob of repti- bark. Should I panic or will she pass it?:cry:

 

[JrFear]

Hmm tough one. was it a big piece or a small piece?
i have my snakes on the same stuff!
remember in the wild snakes eat there food on all types of surfaces so i assume they can break it down!
keep a close eye on Princess tho =]

 

[Fangus]

make sure she has done a proper poo before u feed her again or she will end up very constipated .....

 

[mazzarella]

it was all stuck to the guts, i tried to get the tongues but she got nasty, just swallowed quicker!!

 

[mazzarella]

... a few bits...

 

[mazzarella]

but she will be OK? Id hate to have hurt her She was funny with her food as its winter, she didnt strike just wrapped, then fell on the ground ...

 

[Redbeard]

she'll be right cindarella...

 

[syeph8]

well i personally have had horror stories with bark ingestion and have heard plenty more like it. the way i see it, you could massage the food back up, causing stress and possibly trauma to the snake and not feed him for a couple of weeks to give him time to heal and settle (this is the option i ended up taking, it is very risky and i would never reccomend doing it unless ABSOLUTELY nessicary). or leave it and see how it goes. as JrFear has said, they eat on all kinds of stuff in the wild and it is likely it will digest. sometimes though, the nut of the tree is put in, and this seems to be what happened in my case. it couldnt digest it after two weeks it was the same consistency and size of the day it went in and left an uncomfortably sized sharp looking and feeling lump in her. i took it to vet who said if she wont poop it then it has to be surgery or she will die.
obviously surgery on a yearling CTS is most likely going to be fatal anyway, so i went with the cheaper option with the same (if not better) odds of survival. similar but completely different circumstances to you and i would think that a carpet could digest most pieces of tan bark. as JrFear said. how big? (in comparison to the size of the carpet?)

think that cindarella line may be a bit harsh also redbeard

 

[mazzarella]

it filled her mouth, it was coating the rat, she ate a fair bit, but little bits. syeph - that sound scary and stressful, How do I tell if she has passed it?

 

[Kristy_07]

small bits should be fine, mazza. what jrfear said is true, they eat heaps of small bits of stuff in the wild by accident. sounds like your scenario is quite different from syeph's, so I would watch her for a few days, and if no visible signs of distress, she's probably okay. if you're that worried, you should be taking her to a vet to ease your mind as well as check the snake out.

 

[syeph8]

wait
you will tell.. i would avoid feeding her until all obvious lumps disappear. with any luck, they will disappear within three days and you will never have to worry about it again. may take a couple of weeks though if she has taken a lot of little bits. the good thing is that she hasnt taken in any big bits so you should be right and it should be passed with her first poo. its if there are lots of little white poos within a small space of time that there may be a problem.
good luck. pm me if you want for any more info

 

[daniel1234]

Like JrFear said, no doubt in the wild they pick up the odd bit of roughage along the way with no ill effects. I peronally think as long as it passes something it will be ok. I dont know what a constipated snake looks like as I assume it depends on where the blockage is.
As for not feeding, I have a few snakes who dont always pass after one meal.
If it was me, and bits were that small that it was an effort to remove them, then I would monitor and be reasonalbly happy after the snake had passed the meal.

Edit: Others have just said alot of this, but had trouble with loggin times or something and well anyway this is my bit.....

 

[Fangus]

I think syeph8 is right on the money here .... sorry

As for.... "remember in the wild snakes eat there food on all types of surfaces so i assume they can break it down!" ....assumptions are not always accurate. also remember a lot of wild animals die everyday from swallowing things they aint supposed to.

SWITCH TO NEWSPAPER SUBSTRATE... cheaper, cleaner, safer... only downside is appearance , which is a smallprice to pay

unfortunately at this point I think you have to wait and see ... then check check the poo,

I wish you the best of luck and I really feel for you.

 

[Aiigaru]

I never really got the "it happens in the wild so it must be okay" argument. Don't forget many snakes die in the wild too

I agree, switch to newspaper to prevent silly things happening. Monitor her closely without stressing her out. I wouldn't be feeding her for a little while. If she starts to like she's getting sick, take her to the vet right away please =)

 

[waruikazi]

I never really got the "it happens in the wild so it must be okay" argument. Don't forget many snakes die in the wild too
I agree, switch to newspaper to prevent silly things happening. Monitor her closely without stressing her out. I wouldn't be feeding her for a little while. If she starts to like she's getting sick, take her to the vet right away please =)

Actually they all die in the wild.
If the peices are as small or smaller than the feces your snake passes then it will be fine. If they are bigger then you may have an issue. Usually if they are big enough to cause a problem they will get knocked off the prey before they get swallowed.

 

[daniel1234]

Actually they all die in the wild.
If the peices are as small or smaller than the feces your snake passes then it will be fine. If they are bigger then you may have an issue. Usually if they are big enough to cause a problem they will get knocked off the prey before they get swallowed.

"It happens in the wild" comments are a bit flippent. My apologies. Was not suggesting they chow down happly on branches and logs, just that feeds sometimes would not be as clean as the ones we provide in our realistic natural enclosures with newpaper substrates.
Oh btw I do have one snake who's previous owner used substrate and so I have found it easy to keep it like that for now. However I cover it with a few sheets of newspaper at feeding time and my snake knows what that means. She will pop her head out from her hide or become very alert if out.

 

[waruikazi]

Lol i think APS has broken its funny bone, i know it was an off the cuff statement.

The dangers of ingesting substrate are overstated, i tell people this all the time. It can also be easily avoided if people are that worried by feeding how you do or by simply feeding dry prey items.

"It happens in the wild" comments are a bit flippent. My apologies. Was not suggesting they chow down happly on branches and logs, just that feeds sometimes would not be as clean as the ones we provide in our realistic natural enclosures with newpaper substrates.
Oh btw I do have one snake who's previous owner used substrate and so I have found it easy to keep it like that for now. However I cover it with a few sheets of newspaper at feeding time and my snake knows what that means. She will pop her head out from her hide or become very alert if out.

 

[mazzarella]

my rat was dry before she busted it all open, unfortunatly the guts int dry . Thanks for all the different advice, how do I even tell if she is sick ... she looks content enough up on her wall rock...

 

[mazzarella]

was never so glad to see snake crap

 

[Wally]

Good to hear.