How do you feed Your Ball Python?

Cody hit the spot

If you have a loose substrate or more than one animal in the enclosure (I know, not recommended, but people do it), then I highly recommend feeding outside the enclosure. If you feed live and can't supervise properly without using a separate enclosure because of your setup, I recommend a separate enclosure. Other than that, I think it's what works best for the individual keeper and snake. My Bo Peep (still lost, BTW, send those good snakey-finding vibes) hated being fed in a separate container when I tried that the first few times after getting him, but was a good eater in his own enclosure (no more striking at anything but prey), but with other snakes it hasn't seemed to make much difference either way.

I have 6 balls. Each are fed outside the tank. I do this for two main reasons. I feed live and I use Aspen as a substrate.

I am the one that does the knock three times, use a snake hook and seperate tub routine. My snakes know it means feeding time. Regardless of whether you feed in their enclosure or a seperate tub, setting up a distinctive routine that your snake will associate with feeding time really helps. 95% of the time my snakes have the rat coiled up inside of 30 seconds of the rat being introduced to their feeding tub. They don't mess around. They are eagerly awaiting.

I agree 100% with Shrap about setting up a routine. With a recognizable routine, your ball pythons will be much more consistent feeders no matter how you choose to feed them.

I prefer feeding in the enclosure. In my experience, moving ball pythons around for feeding can sometimes be stressful to them and they seem to feed more consistently inside of their own enclosure using their hide as cover to stalk and strike out at a prey item (wether it be live, FT, or PK).

(These comments are just my opinion and certainly not the only way to take proper care of a ball python :D)

Marla, what do you mean by "loose substrate"??

-adam

I think she meant anything particulate (bark chips, aspen etc).

In tank here as well.

Is the concern about feeding on "loose substrate" an impaction issue?

-adam

I feed in the tank... after I hit snake # four it started to be a pain in the bum.

Ive yet to have a snake mistake my hand for a mouse... you do got to be careful if it smells like rodent in their enclosure though. When I fed my bci the other day, I droped in the rat, bent over to pick somthing up and heard a THUD. The thing was going for my head and hit the glass...
She has a killer feeding response though...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Is the concern about feeding on "loose substrate" an impaction issue?

-adam

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I can't speak for anyone else, but for me the concern is partially impaction, but more about the life-threatening infections that can occur when a piece of substrate pierces the skin in the mouth either on strike or when swallowing. It is also, to a lesser degree, about the possibility of large pieces getting in the way of or throwing off a strike when using a chunky substrate. Obviously which of these are relevant depends on what loose substrate is being used. With corn cob for example, impaction is a definite concern, but substrate getting in the way or piercing the skin are not concerns at all.

Marla,

Are your concerns about feeding on loose substrate from personal experience with ball pythons or something you read or were told?

I'd like to try and discuss this without things getting heated :D. I have a lot of experience feeding on all different kinds of substrates (I'm currently using sani-chips) and also know for fact that many large ball python collections are kept on aspen and cypress mulch and thousands (at least) of ball pythons are fed on those substrates each year without incident. I think that a healthy mind can certainly imagine all kinds of horrible scenarios happening when feeding this way, but the reality is that in practice those things rarely ever happen.

-adam

Smulkin nailed it. Anything from CareFresh to gravel counts as loose substrate for me. Reptile carpet, articificial turf, tile, news or other flat paper, etc., would be the "non-loose" substrate options, as opposed to chipped, shredded, chunked or anything particulate.