My BP ate some aspen bedding...

A "tank aggressive" (if that's what you want to call it)snake is a happy snake in my eyes. If your snake is always trying to eat you when you open the cage, you have a great feeder! Be happy, you could be like one of the other peeps on here asking why their ball python won't eat.

Mine sometimes get a little aspen when they eat, and I figure that in their natural setting they eat some dirt, small rocks, leaves and pieces of sticks with their prey because nobody puts down a plate for them. If you're worried about the snake ingesting it, wait 4-5 days to feed them after you put new aspen in. Snakes pack it down moving their bodies over it and it doesn't stick to prey as badly.

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Originally Posted by twistedtails

A "tank aggressive" (if that's what you want to call it)snake is a happy snake in my eyes. If your snake is always trying to eat you when you open the cage, you have a great feeder! Be happy, you could be like one of the other peeps on here asking why their ball python won't eat.

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Lol...I never thought about it that way..

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

The aspen won't hurt your snake.

Snakes don't get "tank aggressive".

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X2 to both. And to be honest, the only way you're going to make a snake mean (like the ones in most family owned pet stores, the bad ones) Is if you torment the poor thing.

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Originally Posted by twistedtails

A "tank aggressive" (if that's what you want to call it)snake is a happy snake in my eyes. If your snake is always trying to eat you when you open the cage, you have a great feeder! Be happy, you could be like one of the other peeps on here asking why their ball python won't eat.

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agree with this! i do not mind an aggressive snake... for as long as it is a good feeder.. :)

Thanks for all the response!!! very very helpful!

The only reason I'd worry about substrate being eaten is if they ate something COVERED in it. A lot of substrate might cause some problems, but a few pieces should be able to be passed through no sweat. :)

Small amounts of substrate has never hurt any of my snakes so I would not worry about that.

As for tank agression I beleive it is a MYTH I have an older snake 2-3 years 1100 grams who was a rescue I was told she was very tank agressive that is why they wanted to let her go. She has been fed in her enclosure all her life from what I have been told and I would beleive it. She was very thin and hungry when we got her and damn hungry. Which is why she was hunting and striking ate anything warm in her cage. So I have been feeding her approperiate size F/T in her tank for 2 months now and well she has no signs of tank agression UNLESS I smell like a rat. So the easy fix is dont smell like a rat. I can get her out and handle her minutes before feeding while rats are thawing in the room. Easily move some of the features out of her cage while the rat is laying on the counter next to her cage. The second I hit the rat with a blow dryer game on the yes she is agressivly looking for food and well if I get bit it would be my fault she is in hunt mode and my hand is warm. Sorry to rant but I am a little tired or hearing about cage agression as a mater of fact the only time I have been bitten is while trying to take a BP out of a feeding tub after feeding becasue some holistic pet store idiot told my wife that you can't feed in the tank because of cage agression. So feed in your enclosure it causes less stress for the snakes and makes your life easier. :hijackd:

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Snakes don't get "tank aggressive".

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I had a 4 1/2 ft cornsnake who would try to bite your face off if you came within 4ft from his
cage. He was thereason for my first snakehook. Once you got him out he was mellow as could be.

I bin feed all my snkes, they know what the blue totes are for and coil up to strike instantly when placed inside, especially my carpets.

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Originally Posted by andyroof1979

I had a 4 1/2 ft cornsnake who would try to bite your face off if you came within 4ft from his
cage. He was thereason for my first snakehook. Once you got him out he was mellow as could be.

I bin feed all my snkes, they know what the blue totes are for and coil up to strike instantly when placed inside, especially my carpets.

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Totally different behavior set.

About every snake I has will act defensive when removed from an enclosure. That behavior can manifest by striking, by tail rattling or just by fleeing. In the case of ball pythons, ever wonder why many of them curl up into a ball when removed from their enclosures? Balls are less prone to bite, don't really tail rattle and instead just curl up into, well, a ball.

That is not a by-product of feeding, it is a natural response to being grabbed and removed from it's cage/drawer.

See, when we grab a snake from it's cage, we are mimicking the behavior of a predator. That has absolutely nothing to do with "aggression" and it has absolutely nothing to do with feeding an animal in it's cage.

The myth of cage aggression related to feeding is just that - a myth. The problem is that people keep propagating that myth. People keep mistaking defensive behavior with food conditioning. People keep failing to realize that snakes are hard-wired to act defensive when stimulated by behavior on our part that mimics how a predator would act.

Snakes rarely "coil up and strike" when feeding. A snake fed properly in it's environment will stalk and strike, or just strike. Coiling is, in almost every case, a "defensive" behavior performed to both minimize the footprint of the animal and also make the animal look more intimidating to a predator.

There is absolutely zero reason to bin feed. That has been discussed endlessly on this and other forums. There is no cogent argument in favor of doing it, no benefit to be had by practicing it, and only potential issues and complications by advocating it.

[QUOTE=Skiploder;1706652]Totally different behavior set.

About every snake I has will act defensive when removed from an enclosure. That behavior can manifest by striking, by tail rattling or just by fleeing. In the case of ball pythons, ever wonder why many of them curl up into a ball when removed from their enclosures? Balls are less prone to bite, don't really tail rattle and instead just curl up into, well, a ball.

That is not a by-product of feeding, it is a natural response to being grabbed and removed from it's cage/drawer.

See, when we grab a snake from it's cage, we are mimicking the behavior of a predator. That has absolutely nothing to do with "aggression" and it has absolutely nothing to do with feeding an animal in it's cage.

The myth of cage aggression related to feeding is just that - a myth. The problem is that people keep propagating that myth. People keep mistaking defensive behavior with food conditioning. People keep failing to realize that snakes are hard-wired to act defensive when stimulated by behavior on our part that mimics how a predator would act.

Snakes rarely "coil up and strike" when feeding. A snake fed properly in it's environment will stalk and strike, or just strike. Coiling is, in almost every case, a "defensive" behavior performed to both minimize the footprint of the animal and also make the animal look more intimidating to a predator.

There is absolutely zero reason to bin feed. That has been discussed endlessly on this and other forums. There is no cogent argument in favor of doing it, no benefit to be had by practicing it, and only potential issues and complications by advocating it.[/QUOTE/]

I never said he was that nasty because of being fed in the cage, just that he was cage aggressive. CAGE AGRESION MEANS, VERY TERRITORIAL AND DEFENSIVE IN CAGE BUT MELLOW OUT OF CAGE.
I guess it's been "discussed" and is the "opinion" here makes it so. Explain why my 4' male BP, when I was feeding the other night, and was out of large rats, was sitting and staring from his cage as the others were put in the bins before any rodent was thawed, and he was not, they know totes=dinnertime.

Now wth that being said, a snake is not likley to become cage agressive if the cage is opened more than just at feeding time, and that is not my primary pourpose for bin feeding. I have some animals that co-habitate, therefore to prevent 2 snakes attaching to one mouse, I put them in the bin. This also gives an opportunity for cage cleaning, redecoration,etc.

So sorry to pop you're bubble but it DOES exist, it simply is not caused soley from being cage fed. And I wil advocate any of my husbundry techniques, elementary or advanced for that matter and as I see fit. You don't know the people I know in the hobby, the collections I have access to, or my local reputation for the care I give my animals for that matter in the local herp scene.

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Originally Posted by andyroof1979

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Totally different behavior set.

About every snake I has will act defensive when removed from an enclosure. That behavior can manifest by striking, by tail rattling or just by fleeing. In the case of ball pythons, ever wonder why many of them curl up into a ball when removed from their enclosures? Balls are less prone to bite, don't really tail rattle and instead just curl up into, well, a ball.

That is not a by-product of feeding, it is a natural response to being grabbed and removed from it's cage/drawer.

See, when we grab a snake from it's cage, we are mimicking the behavior of a predator. That has absolutely nothing to do with "aggression" and it has absolutely nothing to do with feeding an animal in it's cage.

The myth of cage aggression related to feeding is just that - a myth. The problem is that people keep propagating that myth. People keep mistaking defensive behavior with food conditioning. People keep failing to realize that snakes are hard-wired to act defensive when stimulated by behavior on our part that mimics how a predator would act.

Snakes rarely "coil up and strike" when feeding. A snake fed properly in it's environment will stalk and strike, or just strike. Coiling is, in almost every case, a "defensive" behavior performed to both minimize the footprint of the animal and also make the animal look more intimidating to a predator.

There is absolutely zero reason to bin feed. That has been discussed endlessly on this and other forums. There is no cogent argument in favor of doing it, no benefit to be had by practicing it, and only potential issues and complications by advocating it.

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I never said he was that nasty because of being fed in the cage, just that he was cage aggressive. CAGE AGRESION MEANS, VERY TERRITORIAL AND DEFENSIVE IN CAGE BUT MELLOW OUT OF CAGE.
I guess it's been "discussed" and is the "opinion" here makes it so. Explain why my 4' male BP, when I was feeding the other night, and was out of large rats, was sitting and staring from his cage as the others were put in the bins before any rodent was thawed, and he was not, they know totes=dinnertime.

Now wth that being said, a snake is not likley to become cage agressive if the cage is opened more than just at feeding time, and that is not my primary pourpose for bin feeding. I have some animals that co-habitate, therefore to prevent 2 snakes attaching to one mouse, I put them in the bin. This also gives an opportunity for cage cleaning, redecoration,etc.

So sorry to pop you're bubble but it DOES exist, it simply is not caused soley from being cage fed. And I wil advocate any of my husbundry techniques, elementary or advanced for that matter and as I see fit. You don't know the people I know in the hobby, the collections I have access to, or my local reputation for the care I give my animals for that matter in the local herp scene.

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Oh boy. Somebody with thin skin has his panties in a wad..........

Before I address your little temper tantrum, I will say this - you are correct that cohabitated snakes should be fed separately. That is the one mitigating instance where using a feeding bin is a valid practice.

Andy, mean old Uncle Skippy didn't mean to chap your tender buttocks. I had no idea that I was dealing with such a celebrity in the herp world. An expert with access to dignitaries in the reptile scene that would no doubt dazzle me if you dared drop their names. A person who has access to collections in the world of exotic pets that would make me fudge my boxers. I will be much more careful in the future, for God only knows I don't want my fragile bubble popped again by someone of your eminence.

Just out of curiosity, which of your snakes are you cohabitating? The IJs?