What's the Best Way to Feed Live?

So while Kayly was still eating mice, I had a separate tub to feed her in because all of the information I could find before I got her said DO NOT feed in the tank or it will cause striking at things other than food and makes them harder to handle. Since she's moved up to rats, she has also outgrown her feeding tub but this might not be bad. After being a part of this site for a while, there seems to be more evidence pointing to the fact that the risk of regurgitation is greater from moving to feed than the risk of aggression from not. As a secondary question, if I feed her in her tank, is it better to get her out of her hide or wait until she comes out before I put the rat in or do I just leave the rat in for a few minutes for her to find on her own?

Uh... Just drop the mice in

I just let the BP come out on its own. So far everytime the f/t rat has entered her cage, she has come out to investigate/"kill" it. Lifting their hide might cause stress and therefore the snake may not eat.

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It's a pretty simple three step process:

1) Drop live rat in the enclosure

2) Watch snake destroy the rat's day

3) Repeat next week

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Originally Posted by Slim

It's a pretty simple three step process:

1) Drop live rat in the enclosure

2) Watch snake destroy the rat's day

3) Repeat next week

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Lol always enjoy slims in depth how to break downs [emoji106]


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I doubt that removing the hide would cause any stress. I keep all my snakes in an ARS rack system, when I open the tub I imagine it's like removing the hide. At first they were kind of freaked out when the snakes were new, but now when I open the tub they expect a mouse. Probably would be the same when removing a hide, they may get freaked out the first couple times but after that it would signal them to eat. If I were you I'd actually prefer removing the hide when feeding, that way you can see if the rodent is biting the snake and you can intervene. My mice still bite my snakes occasionally when they are being constricted and I have to stand by with a popsicle stick LOL. I've seen one eyed snakes for sale on the internet, gotta be careful! Usually you only have to watch them for the first 20 seconds or so until the snake does his thing.

I haven't fed live but this is what I understand of how to do it right: feed and water the rodent first. You don't want a hungry rodent in there. Put the rodent in the enclosure. Don't annoy the snake; let her hunt on her own. Supervise until the rodent is dead. If she gets a bad strike or is ignoring the rodent, stand by to prevent a bite. Other than that, well, snakes know how to eat rodents better than we do ;).

Haha. Thanks. I just want sure because the first time I fed her a rat, she struck while half way in the hide and got her midsection stuck under the side of it. I also wasn't sure if the rat would end up just chilling in a corner or if it would try to go into the hide or something. I don't want it to go in there and give her a super limited strike range and visibility like that? Has that happened to anyone?

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Originally Posted by RiA MaU

Haha. Thanks. I just want sure because the first time I fed her a rat, she struck while half way in the hide and got her midsection stuck under the side of it. I also wasn't sure if the rat would end up just chilling in a corner or if it would try to go into the hide or something. I don't want it to go in there and give her a super limited strike range and visibility like that? Has that happened to anyone?

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Snakes DO miss, more than once too for the same prey item.

It's safer for the snake to eat pre-killed rodents. I had a friend with a gorgeous boa that ended up with a very upset rat. The rat had a good bite or two on the snake. The snake ended up needing to visit the vet due to the bite and ensuing infection.

Lastly, the owner had to force feed his boa because it came "food shy".

There's no benefit to feeding live except for the owner. A snake is in confined quarters and doesn't have a chance to necessarily move away from a rat if it's body is blocked due to a container wall, as you have already noticed can happen.

I used to feed live, and I stopped that eons ago, it wasn't worth risking my animal's safety for my selfish entertainment and interest.

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Originally Posted by viper69

It's safer for the snake to eat pre-killed rodents. I had a friend with a gorgeous boa that ended up with a very upset rat. The rat had a good bite or two on the snake. The snake ended up needing to visit the vet due to the bite and ensuing infection.

Lastly, the owner had to force feed his boa because it came "food shy"..

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Feeding live for a long time without any problems myself I would say the owner was not taking the rat into consideration. As far as "food shy", please I don't have my boots on yet.

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Originally Posted by viper69

There's no benefit to feeding live except for the owner. A snake is in confined quarters and doesn't have a chance to necessarily move away from a rat if it's body is blocked due to a container wall, as you have already noticed can happen.

I used to feed live, and I stopped that eons ago, it wasn't worth risking my animal's safety for my selfish entertainment and interest.

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This right here says a lot about you. SMH
Again, taken care of rats are not and have not been a problem for me at all.
There is a benefit of feeding live, NO waste of a life. If the rodent is not eaten it gets to go back into the rack and live another week. ;)

To get back on topic, Don't stress the prey and remember your snake knows what to do. Its in their DNA. :gj: