How long do you leave a feeder in unattended?

I only have 9 snakes right now and im feeding them all Live ASFs. I just hold the rat by the tail and dangle ofer the snakes head then BAM. One of my snakes wont eat if he can see me so i use tongs and hold the live rat by the scruff of the neck and walk him into the hide.
Im lucky all my snakes will eat instantly at feeding time. I dont have a problem with leaving a live rat to wander the cage but ill be in the room the entire time constantly checking.
Never leave a rodent in a cage overnight.

I leave mine in between forty-five minutes and an hour. BHB said on reptile radio that he leaves his in overnight.

I didn't vote mainly because you don't leave feeders unattended period! I feed live I choose to feed live my animals thrive and to this day never had any problems, mainly because I NEVER leave my snakes unattended during feedings.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mikedahitman87

This was one of the points I tried to make with first post. If more people with large collections responded, it would be interesting to see how they affected the poll.

---

True, most people you see on here have only one or two snakes. I have forty keepers, and many more during hatching season. It would take a while for me to watch over every one. It would be impossible for someone with thousands of snakes to watch over them.

from my experience I leave a feeder in the tank about 25 min. If my ball doesn't take it in 25 min she won't take it at all. Try again in 2-3 days.

Tip: try feeding at night less noise, light, and movement outside the tank.

99% of the time, all my snakes eat within 5 seconds of prey being offered, but I occasionally get one that won't take that second or third rodent. When I'm done with each round of feeding (I have a few mousers that get 3-4 mice per feeding) I do a quick check and any rat or mouse that is still alive gets taken out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slim

Your poll doesn't have an option for Never. I would never leave anything larger than a fuzy in with any of my BPs unsupervised.

---

Amen. I will NEVER leave a live feeder unattended with ANY of my animals. I've invested too much money, love, time, etc. into these animals, and I won't risk their lives for convenience.

Wow this really is going to strike people as odd. But I feed live every one of my animals eats live prey. So heres how I do it.

I take and toss the small rat in the tub with the snake. Now 9:10 the snake nails it not 3 seconds after the feeder being introduced. how ever I do have a couple of animals that are ticky so they take a little longer..I will leave a small rat in the tub for up to an hour checking on it every 15 minutes or so. Most of my picky eaters will eat during this time.

However I have a Mojo female that the feeder has to be left over night with her. I have never had an injury after 5 years and thousands of feeding. I think as long as your responsible and not leaving the rodent in the enclosure for long periods of time its fine.

Now there are exceptions to the rule..Things do happen so I'd suggest doing what your comfortable with

I'm always the outcast on this topic, the pariah.

I have absolutely NO problem leaving a well-fed, well-watered rat in with one of my snakes for more than an hour or two. I don't do overnight but it has happened once or twice (on accident) with no ill effect.

A few points:

• I have multiple hundreds of snakes. I don't have time to sit and watch each of them for 20 minutes and then take the rat out if it doesn't eat.
• Some of my snakes NEVER eat within 20 minutes. They only eat after the rat has been in the cage for a much longer period of time.
• If I monitored every single feeding I wouldn't have time to make this post because I would be feeding 24/7 and would never do anything else.

In almost 20 years of doing this (hundreds of thousands of feedings) I have never seen a well-fed rat simply attack a snake. It just doesn't normally happen. If you throw a starving rat into a tub with a snake that doesn't want to eat, you may have a problem. If your rat can drink from the snakes water bowl I think you'll be fine. Unless you have an aggressive strain of rat they are pretty darn docile until they get very hungry or very thirsty.

Now, I know nobody who regularly posts here will agree with me on this but I'm cool with it. What I do works for me and I have not had an animal damaged yet from rodent bite (knock, knock).

If you have a ball python that doesn't seem to be eating in the 20 minute range, consider trying what I say. If it makes you uneasy, sit there the whole time and read a book. While you're at it, toss a piece of rat chow in the cage, too. That will give the rodent something to eat if it gets hungry.

Regards,