Feeding in shed: your thoughts..?

No, I don't mean feeding your snakes in a small garage, silly. I am talking about feeding BPs while they are in shed; do you, or do you not? And what are your thoughts behind your practices?
Personally, I do not feed mine while they are in blue. My reasoning:
1) being in shed is a vulnerable time for any snake. I think that it would have to be very stressful for even a prey item to be coming at the snake at this time.
2) Shedding is a cumbersome procedure for an animal that's used to sitting still for long periods, and has to take a lot of energy and calories. Why put the snake through the added burden of fresh material that needs to be digested, at this time?
3) Generally, shedding is done more often by snakes that are still growing. So if the snake is already too big for its skin, why add weight to the animal at that time? (I know that adult snakes do shed, but I am speaking about juveniles in this reason.)

I have a Pastel male that will eat in full blue, and never has a problem. I guess it up the animal.

I will no longer be attempting to feed Nag once I see signs of an impending shed... He refused last time... My sister's corn, Nugget, takes FOREVER to shed, so we can feed him during the early phases, and he'll eat, but I tried to feed Nag after his eyes had gone blue, and I agree, I think there was no room for food and that he felt vulnerable to the food and I stressed him out more than anything else... Nag did however eat very well about 12 hours after he shed on Sunday... and Nugget at like a pig a few days after his shed...

I like feeding the day after a shed. They are usually empty, since they defecate/urate unfailingly when they shed it seems, and ready for dinner.

I have only been through it once now, and what I did was observe my snake carefully to judge his interest in food.

on feeding day he is normally alert and watching for food. during shed on feeding day he was coiled in his hide and not displaying normal feeding day body language. I skipped the feed but a couple days later he did start to act like he wanted a feed...so at that point I offered and he took it.

I would think that every snake is different. I would also say that skipping a feed during shed probably has no downside, but feeding cautiously with non-live prey is probably just fine too, as long as you are ready to throw away a refused meal.

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Originally Posted by fishmommy

~snipped~ as long as you are ready to throw away a refused meal.

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I hate that :mad: For some reason I can't bring myself to feed it to the dogs or cats either...... I just HATE wasting it!

I normally feed right when I notice that his skin's looking a little dull, before his eyes go blue. That way he goes through shed with a full stomach. :P

I feed every Saturday whether in shed or not. Since they hunt primarily by scent and heat signatures with their heat pits, I don't notice any decline in strike accuracy.


I rarely have a refusal, even in full blue. I figure if they're uncomfortable enough, they'll refuse.

I used to offer no matter what, but more often then not I would get a refusal. I'll feed them if they're in the pink belly stage of the shed but once they're blue I just wait till the first day of the shed. I think if I was feeding live and had somewhere to keep refused live meals I would offer them no matter what stage they were in. The whole defrosting a rat with a refusal is pretty demoralizing, so I just spare myself the grief.

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Originally Posted by gibbrishclown

I hate that :mad: For some reason I can't bring myself to feed it to the dogs or cats either...... I just HATE wasting it!

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I wouldn't offer to the dog or cats, they get straight dog and cat food.