Do you feed in tank?

I feed all of my snakes in separate tubs. In the case of my female ball, that happens to be the bath tub because it's the only thing big enough that she doesn't have time to launch out at me before I can drop the rat. Lol. She nailed me when I tried to feed her in her enclosure. If I keep the food in another room, wash my hands and reach in to pick her up, no problems. She's totally mellow. I lay her in the bath tub and she waits patiently most of the time. It was a huge switch in her personality and behavior after I started feeding her there.

My male wouldn't eat in his enclosure. Stick him in his "feeding tub" and he's a beast.

My Dum knows when feeding day is. She calmly let me pick her up and put her in her feedin tub, then waits calmly for me to give her the rat pup. No problems there either. Come to think of it, if I take her out to hold her, she's flighty. Take her out to feed her, totally mellow.

They are all so different. Lol. It just really depends on what works best for you and your snakes.

If you're dealing with picky eaters (many ball pythons :rolleyes:), they will rarely take food out of the tank. And I have never had a problem with cage aggression (associating your hands with food) with a ball python. Ever.

On the other hand, incredibly aggressive feeders (my boas :D) don't care where they are or where they usually eat, if they smell food they're going to go nuts. Good luck trying to pick up a boa that smells food.


The way I see it, feeding in a separate tub makes no sense. Hook training is an easier solution to cage aggression, though with ball pythons it's rarely necessary. But if feeding in a separate tub works for you, whatever.

I feed all of my bloods (and my BP, only have 1) in their enclosures, always have. I have never had problems and feel that the stress of moving them outside of their enclosures to feed causes undue stress and the thinking of feeding outside of their enclosure because of the snakes would associate that with feeding is an antiquated line of thinking.


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I feed in their enclosures...


:8: I'm trying to imagine feeding in a feeding container now... We tried that with Maru before.... It meant "No eating at all" for him! And with how high strung and ready to eat at all times our boa is.... I'd get bit more often taking her to the feeding enclosure than if I just tossed in the f/t on feeding days. Oh boy.


We do feed our frog in a feeding container occassionally! :) It makes it easier for him to catch the buggies and without tasting icky dirt. If we are just tong feeding worms or something he will stay in the tub though.

Just think about it from the perspective of the snake. Presumably your on the 5-7th day of not eating and your hungry. Now a big animal sticks his hand in my den and grabs me and puts me in a plastic container with no security and then puts a prey item in there with me. How in the world would that help a snake to eat. If you want the simple answer to which is better look at how the animal would be in the wild. I know people do it successfully but that's more in their head to be totally honest no predator likes to be exposed before it strikes and kills prey.

I've been feeding Kaa in his enclosure since first feed, and he has never shown an ounce of aggression towards me on non feeding days. I feel that he knows when it's time to eat since I warm his mice up in front of the glass of his set up. When it's time to give him his num-num's, he's out of his hide and looking around for it.

:banana:

I started out trying to feed in seperate cages but soon learned that my bp would not eat if I picked her up first. It took her a good 3wks to start eating in her viv but she does great now. The thing I learned is a feeder cage doesn't have the temp/hum control a viv does unless you create a really good one so I can imagine it's a bit of a shock to their systems to be moved then expected to eat. I feed in the viv using long tongs and f/t mice (that's all she will eat). Have not had a problem with aggression at all.

I feed in enclosure. Have yet to be bit or experience cage aggression from any of my snakes during feeding time or not.

Sure do. No changes in temperament here either, evil ones are still evil, calm ones are still calm.

I feed all of mine in their own tubs. I tried using a designated 'feeding bin', but that gave me negative results. The rats had a larger space to roam and the snakes kept getting spooked. As a result, my snakes refused meals in the separate bin. They all eat fine when they're in their own tubs.

(I also use newspaper or paper towel substrate, so no loose pieces to choke on)