Where should he eat?

Yea I would think taking him out of his environment and putting him in another spot to eat would be harder on the Snake then anything. I'm not sure why some People say and do this.

I would just feed him and wait till his food is Digested before handling him. Like You said You gave Birth, and that has to be one of the most painfull things to ever go though.

So this is what I would do if I wanted a nice,don't bite at Me Ball Python when I open the cage. "OK here You go He's feed and its all digested well enough to take Him out,with out Him throwing up on You"

You look at Him and he's in his tank and not looking to strike at all. Just reach in quickly and take Him out after a while He'll know that He gets handled every once and a while, and then You'll see that neither one of You have nothing to fear.

And before You know it You'll just be able to reach in and pick Him up,with no worries of getting bit or stressing Him out and putting Him in a deferent cage to eat. If He is biting You when You reach in just pick Him up anyway. You will see it doesn't really hurt at all and he will grow out of it very soon.

Try that and You'll see what I mean,just remember He's just a baby and can get scarred easy. I just pick them up fast even the meanest baby's quit bitting after a short Time. Good luck with Your new baby Ball Python, and let Me know how it goes sometime down the road.:D


Greg VanZweden

So tonight we decided to feed bob. We had his fuzzy layed to dethaw for a little bit and just after i posted on this earlier i said we fed him outside the tank. Well last weekend we bought a new tank with new stuff etc... and he loves it.... you can just tell lol....

well so we take him out of his tank as usual for feeding and he wont strike at it... nothing... so after reading this earlier we decided ok... put him back in the tank and just lay the fuzzy in there to see if he will eat it.... and no sooner did we put him in his hide, dangle the fuzzy with the tongs, he strikes lol..........

I think he's telling us something and he's making examples of us lol

Before I dont think his old thank got hot enough, now we have two temp gauges one on top (hot) and one on the bottom (cold) and its staying nice and toasty in there, jsut where it needs to be. (our tank is taller than it is longer)

Every day for us something new, Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters.


Thanks Greg!!!

I am glad Bob liked his Fuzzy!!! Yum... err ok not really my kinda meal but YAY for Bob!

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Originally Posted by Mr. Constrictor

this is my opinon on this. feed them in the tank.
you may noticed that when you take them out of the tank thay are less likly to eat because they were just handled kinda the same reason that when you get a snake you let it settle in for a bit before trying to feed.

if you handle (returning it to its cage) any snake after it just ate you run the risk of being bitten by a snake still in feed mode or it may reguge.

I maybe wrong on this but the people that say if you feed in the cage that they associate their tank with feeding. I DON't belive that a snake is smart enuff to make that connection.

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I follow the same belief.... :gj:

Well hey, who's the goose? :oops:

I have actually started doing a hybrid method. I put my BP in a small plastic container INSIDE the regular enclosure. This way there is no chance of ingesting substrate, but after she is done eating she can climb out of the smaller container and back into her hide. No need to handle her or cause undue stress after eating. Awhile later, after she is settled in, I come back and remove the feeding container. It's the best of both worlds.

Well I think you should feed them in a seperate enclosure...

That's the way I've been doing it for the past 8 years and I never had a snake regurgitate... I've been bitten once while getting one of my snakes out of a separate box b/c I had fed her 2 mice and then waited a few minutes and reached in and she tagged me, but it wasn't anything bad (She was just confused and it was her first time getting more than one mouse)...

Rats and mice are gross and pee and poop all the time when they're getting killed... I don't like my enclosures being dirty at all... so if the rat poops in the tank I would run the risk of reaching in and cleaning it up... the snake could get confused and tag me... I mean either way you are going to confuse the snake, but if you put them in the separate enclosure just wait 15 minutes after they relocated their jaw and start moving around like they are trying to get out... That is their sign to me that they are reading to go back home ;)

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Originally Posted by Koolaid

Rats and mice are gross and pee and poop all the time when they're getting killed... I don't like my enclosures being dirty at all...

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The hybrid "separate container inside enclosure" method is great for this. The mouse can mess up the container without any chance of getting excrement in your nice clean tank. Also, no chance of getting tagged because you don't have to pick up a BP that's in feeding mode.

I feed in both the thank & also a seperate enclosure. Less chance of them chewing all my herpstat II probes & hygrometers to shreds.

Plus its easier for me to film. in a seperate cardboard box.

That was easier then pulling out all the probes & then resetting them all after they fed.

I have never had an issue with one striking me, I scrub down pretty good before hand.

I let the mouse scent the box, remove the mouse,add in the bp then after a feew mins i intriduce the meal, live of course. THey eat 2 mice each last night in this fashion.