new snake owner

Back when my snake was younger (3ft in length, 4yrs ago) I fed inside his tank. One day I while he as swallowing the food I notice a piece of aspen in his mouth and I quickly brought my hand in the tank and took it out (My snake didnt seem to notice) but Im sure maybe another one got into his mouth before I even noticed and he swallowed it. So now we let him bite and coil onto the food in his tank then take the rat by the tail and pull it out while the snake is still attached to the food. He will not let go, infact he wraps more coils around the rat and we then put him in a large plastic tub to finish the rat off. People ask me why dont I just put the snake in another feeding enclosure and let him eat the f/t food there. I tell them my snake feels unsure of himself and not safe being switched to a newer environment to feed. Infact when we tried this once she just tried a to find a way to escape the f/t food. lol. So now we just feed inside the tank when he is hungry, then tank him out of the tank while he is "killing the f/t food.

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Originally Posted by Sapphire7

Back when my snake was younger (3ft in length, 4yrs ago) I fed inside his tank. One day I while he as swallowing the food I notice a piece of aspen in his mouth and I quickly brought my hand in the tank and took it out (My snake didnt seem to notice) but Im sure maybe another one got into his mouth before I even noticed and he swallowed it. So now we let him bite and coil onto the food in his tank then take the rat by the tail and pull it out while the snake is still attached to the food. He will not let go, infact he wraps more coils around the rat and we then put him in a large plastic tub to finish the rat off. People ask me why dont I just put the snake in another feeding enclosure and let him eat the f/t food there. I tell them my snake feels unsure of himself and not safe being switched to a newer environment to feed. Infact when we tried this once she just tried a to find a way to escape the f/t food. lol. So now we just feed inside the tank when he is hungry, then tank him out of the tank while he is "killing the f/t food.

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You could just put paper towels under the mouse :P

To me, that's much easier than handling a snake that just ate to put him back in his tank.

I use aspen and I've never had a problem with a few stray pieces of aspen going down with the meal.

We've been feeding Monty for the last 7 weeks out of his normal enclosure in a large cardboard box. Most of my friends feed their snakes that way, too. No substrate in the carboard box to worry about, just a plain empty box except for the PB and his live meal.
I'm sure some will disagree with this technic, but it has worked so far us and my friends, too.

I just take a small square of astroturf and put that over my substrate ill leave that in there for about 15 min or so and my ball starts crusing all over i guess she smells past meals or somthing but the fuzzy dosnt even hit the ground most of the time and it seems to do a good job a stopping substrate from getting near her mouth or the meal