Should you handle your boa when hungry?

I have an adult 5 foot red tail boa and am feeding her later than usual since I was out traveling. I normally feed her once every 4 weeks but it's been almost 6. I just got back and am planning on feeding her tonight or tomorrow morning but wanted to get her out of the cage for a bit first but wondering if I should leave her alone until after feeding since she is off schedule?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aliamo

I have an adult 5 foot red tail boa and am feeding her later than usual since I was out traveling. I normally feed her once every 4 weeks but it's been almost 6. I just got back and am planning on feeding her tonight or tomorrow morning but wanted to get her out of the cage for a bit first but wondering if I should leave her alone until after feeding since she is off schedule?

---

My Boa is currently 5 foot and I would not handle him if he was hungry for a long time. I don’t think he will bite me if I did but he will be having only one thing on his mind and that is food. He might be stressed if I did, so better feed him and let him digest first. This is only imagination, i never kept him hungry for 2 weeks

I wouldn’t worry about it. If you want to get it out get her out. I haven’t fed my big 8ft girl for 2 months or so now. I could go up and get her now and she would be perfectly fine. I’m late feeding my 2 year olds by a week or so now but I could also get them out and be perfectly fine. Honestly any snake I have I could go get right now even the Retics that are always hungry and be perfectly fine.

As as long as you use a hook and don’t have the smell of food in the air it’s not a big deal. The only thing that would be worrying is if you have an overly nervous snake and want to handle it right before feeding. I’ve handled a lot of my snakes on feeding day for a few minutes. Sometimes I even clean cages and do water the same day I feed them.

You will be fine. All of my snakes dont go crazy unless they actually smell food. Then they are all dangerous. Otherwise i can reach in and grab anyone and its fine. Heck my retic is so foody that after i fed him a jumbo rat, he went to take a drink and while drinking, i figured that would be a good time to quietly slide a door open and pull his feeding cardboard out. Well he felt the door open and came flying over, mouth open and spitting up water all over lol. He didnt even care about swallowing the water, he just wanted another rat lol. But once there is no food and his food drive is off, he literally will come over and sit on on my arm. I had him on the floor while i was cleaning his cage and he came over and was trying to climb on me while i was working on his cage. Never seen a snake act like that before. He seems to actually like attention.