Eating Disorder??

Feeding in the normal enclosure will not make your snake bite you if you reach in. If you reach in during feeding day and you smell like a mouse, then you will get bitten.

They will only bite if they are hungry and you smell like a mouse.

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Originally Posted by UnforgivenScarz

Many people I talked to told me not to put food directly into her cage like that because they begin to associate anything entering the cage as prey and they tend to strike out at anything that enters the cage. Is that something I should consider or is it not a problem? I've heard mixed opinions on the subject so I played it safe so far and tried to avoid it. I'm not afraid of getting bit every now and then but I'm not the only one who picks up her and I don't want them getting hurt. Would this feeding technique cause any problems with that?

Thanks agian
- AJ

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If the only time you ever opened her enclosure was to put in food and you fed that food right off your bare hand, she might start associating your hand to food but that's not the normal course of keeping a snake for most people.

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Originally Posted by UnforgivenScarz

Alright so ...

It's not bad for the snakes health to be eating the old rat?

And feeding her directly into the cage wont cause her to bite (one slip up and she bites my mom ... I get it taken out of my hide).
This particular snake [Nova] was picked out by my mom at a reptile show so she became a family pet unlike the rest of my herps. So it's really important that I don't have this one biting [unless the rats are bad for her and feeding her in such a way was the only way of getting her healthy food. Health first]

Thanks everyone for the help so far I really appreciate it,

- AJ

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I wouldn't say that eating a decomposing rat that's been dead and in her cage a day is a particularily good thing for her. Work on encouraging a better hunting and feeding response from her. Tighten up your feeding routine so you are checking back after an hour or so and aren't making a habit of leaving dead prey in their too often.

As far as "one slip up", your mother does realize that this is a snake right? Snakes are creatures of instinct, not ever a fully tamed pet. If one nip will get you or the snake in trouble then perhaps you need to have a chat with your mom about realistic expectations when you keep herps in the house. It's not a common thing to get bitten but it does happen occasionally.

Understanding snakes, and specifically ball pythons, tends to lessen the situations where a bite is more likely to occur but nothing and nobody can tell you that any technique will remove any possibility that your mother could be bit.