Feeding in a separate tub vs. enclosure.

In a few months I'll have a snake baby of my own and I've been wondering what people's thoughts are on whether or not to feed them in a separate tub?

I've seen lots of conflicting opinions, but I was just curious about people's experiences with doing either!

Thanks. :)

Conflicting opinions are generally from people that keep perpetuation the myth that if a snake is fed in the enclosure he will be cage aggressive. ;)

Snakes should be fed in their enclosure for their sake and for yours as well, moving a snake that is in feed mode is the best way to get tagged, with BP in particular it can also be stressful enough to lead to refusal.

Trust me on feeding day I would not venture in putting my hand in my snakes enclosures let alone picking one up to transfer it to another location, with a strong routine they can be conditioned to know when feeding day is and can be on feed mod from early during that day to hours after their meal.

While in theory it may make sense to do so, in practice there is almost no benefit to feeding in a separate tub.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Conflicting opinions are generally from people that keep perpetuation the myth that if a snake is fed in the enclosure he will be cage aggressive. ;)

Snakes should be fed in their enclosure for their sake and for yours as well, moving a snake that is in feed mode is the best way to get tagged, with BP in particular it can also be stressful enough to lead to refusal.

Trust me on feeding day I would not venture in putting my hand in my snakes enclosures let alone picking one up to transfer it to another location, with a strong routine they can be conditioned to know when feeding day is and can be on feed mod from early during that day to hours after their meal.

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Thanks for your input! I asked a few people, got some breeders' opinions and, in general, the more experience they had with snakes the less likely they were to recommend feeding in a separate tub.

Plus I was also concerned about handling a snake/moving it around so soon after it's eaten? I'm not sure if it's an issue, but it seems like it could cause problems. I wouldn't want someone chucking me around after I'd just stuffed my face.

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Originally Posted by charlo_lucy

Thanks for your input! I asked a few people, got some breeders' opinions and, in general, the more experience they had with snakes the less likely they were to recommend feeding in a separate tub.

Plus I was also concerned about handling a snake/moving it around so soon after it's eaten? I'm not sure if it's an issue, but it seems like it could cause problems. I wouldn't want someone chucking me around after I'd just stuffed my face.

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You are going to want to leave them alone for 48 hours after feeding.

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Originally Posted by charlo_lucy

Thanks for your input! I asked a few people, got some breeders' opinions and, in general, the more experience they had with snakes the less likely they were to recommend feeding in a separate tub.

Plus I was also concerned about handling a snake/moving it around so soon after it's eaten? I'm not sure if it's an issue, but it seems like it could cause problems. I wouldn't want someone chucking me around after I'd just stuffed my face.

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Exactly! :gj:

I was watching SnakeBytes TV on wed dealing with getting a snake to eat. Bryan dips into this top a little bit. How do you guys feel about his comments in regards to this topic? The part im talking about begins at 7 mins exactly.

https://youtu.be/zWVwB_XXhJw?t=6m59s

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Originally Posted by Rikoku

I was watching SnakeBytes TV on wed dealing with getting a snake to eat. Bryan dips into this top a little bit. How do you guys feel about his comments in regards to this topic? The part im talking about begins at 7 mins exactly.

https://youtu.be/zWVwB_XXhJw?t=6m59s

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I was thinking (happy to be corrected if I'm wrong) that feeding in a separate tub really doesn't erase the possibility of conditioning the snake/getting bitten whatsoever.

All you're going to end up doing is conditioning the snake to associate that tub (rather than its enclosure) with a feeding response, and if you're going to be moving it in and out of that tub... the risk is still there, right? If not, more so.

I think what Bryan said about only going in there to feed it 1/7 days makes sense to me. Much rather to feed in the enclosure 1/7 times than a tub all of the time if you're trying not to get bitten...


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Originally Posted by Rikoku

I was watching SnakeBytes TV on wed dealing with getting a snake to eat. Bryan dips into this top a little bit. How do you guys feel about his comments in regards to this topic? The part im talking about begins at 7 mins exactly.

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He makes a few important points which support feeding in the enclosure between the 7:00 mark and the 8:41 mark:

1. At 7:23, he stays if your snake tends to be timid or why, then it benefits from staying in its enclosure to eat. Since he's talking about all species of snakes, we need to translate that to ball pythons who by their very nature tend to be pretty reclusive.
2. At 7:40, he says that as long as you're in the enclosure doing other things besides feeding, "cage aggression" is all but eliminated (and even rolls his eyes as he says, "I get the argument...whatever you guys want to do.").
3. At the 8:07 mark, he brings up "in the wild" as it relates to substrate ingestion and at 8:30 says flat out that a little substrate ingestion is perfectly fine.

Brian definitely knows a thing or two about snakes. :P

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Originally Posted by Eric Alan

He makes a few important points which support feeding in the enclosure between the 7:00 mark and the 8:41 mark:

1. At 7:23, he stays if your snake tends to be timid or why, then it benefits from staying in its enclosure to eat. Since he's talking about all species of snakes, we need to translate that to ball pythons who by their very nature tend to be pretty reclusive.
2. At 7:40, he says that as long as you're in the enclosure doing other things besides feeding, "cage aggression" is all but eliminated (and even rolls his eyes as he says, "I get the argument...whatever you guys want to do.").
3. At the 8:07 mark, he brings up "in the wild" as it relates to substrate ingestion and at 8:30 says flat out that a little substrate ingestion is perfectly fine.

Brian definitely knows a thing or two about snakes. :P

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I definitely agree with him and I feed my snakes in their enclosures. Just thought I would put that out there as he does talk about feeding in a separate tub.