Feed in cage or separate cage?

I feed all my Corns, JCP's and my Cali king all in thier enclosure but in the beginning I started off feeding my Corns in a separate container.

I used to feed them in their cage, but I was afraid of the loose substrate, and started feeding them in a separate tank. No problem at all. I could feed them both ways, but the separate cage works fine for me.

I always feed in a seperate cage. My BPs have never shown stress and rarely refuse a meal. It just the way i have always done it and my snakes know that they get handled before they eat and they are fine with it, i do give them 10 or so mins to remember why they are in this little rodent smelling cage before i dangle there dinner. I started doing this first with my Red tail boa cause she is a little cranky and the last thing i need is that big girl thinking foods a coming every time the top comes off her cage. I think it is a choice that we all have to make for ourselves. I do know that the sometime my snakes will hit a thawed rat so hard that the belly rips open and blood and stuff gets in the feed cage. I would not want mess in my bed room so i show them the kindness of keeping that out of their home :)



chris

I feed all my snakes in separate containers. It works great for us. I also feed my beardies their live food in a separate container.

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Originally Posted by artis223

I always feed in a seperate cage. My BPs have never shown stress and rarely refuse a meal. It just the way i have always done it and my snakes know that they get handled before they eat and they are fine with it, i do give them 10 or so mins to remember why they are in this little rodent smelling cage before i dangle there dinner. I started doing this first with my Red tail boa cause she is a little cranky and the last thing i need is that big girl thinking foods a coming every time the top comes off her cage. I think it is a choice that we all have to make for ourselves. I do know that the sometime my snakes will hit a thawed rat so hard that the belly rips open and blood and stuff gets in the feed cage. I would not want mess in my bed room so i show them the kindness of keeping that out of their home :)



chris

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I agree with this post completely. I have a 7 ft. Red Tail and when I first got him (rescued him from certain death) less than a year ago, he had been fed in cage and I started out feeding him out. He messed me up a few times at first, but he is totally fine with it now. The main reason I dealt with getting tagged a few times at first was because I don't want to deal with that aggression every time I go to handle him or change water, etc. I know this is a Ball Python forum and Red Tail Boas are different. It's relative to the fact that I have been feeding both of my 9 mo. old BP's out sinc I got them and they are so o.k. with it, and are totally relaxed when handles about 20 mins. after each feed. That said, if I noticed any stress around feeding time at any time in their lives, I would consider changing out the loose substrate and feeding in cage if it makes my snakes happier. This is working very well for me now, though.

Seperate, only because EVERYTIME Shogun strikes & coils, the darn mouse pees n poops all over the place o(0.o)o

I used to feed my Ball pythons in a separate container and didn't have that many problems. I fed Candice on a separate container for over a year and never had a problem with her. Though I did have one snake (Dumeril's boa) that never ate in a separate container. One day I just started feedig all of my snakes in their own enclosures because it was a lot easier.

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Originally Posted by otiswest

I agree with this post completely. I have a 7 ft. Red Tail and when I first got him (rescued him from certain death) less than a year ago, he had been fed in cage and I started out feeding him out. He messed me up a few times at first, but he is totally fine with it now. The main reason I dealt with getting tagged a few times at first was because I don't want to deal with that aggression every time I go to handle him or change water, etc. I know this is a Ball Python forum and Red Tail Boas are different. It's relative to the fact that I have been feeding both of my 9 mo. old BP's out sinc I got them and they are so o.k. with it, and are totally relaxed when handles about 20 mins. after each feed. That said, if I noticed any stress around feeding time at any time in their lives, I would consider changing out the loose substrate and feeding in cage if it makes my snakes happier. This is working very well for me now, though.

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So, are you saying you handle your Ball pythons 20 minutes after they eat?

all snakes here from bp's to retics all fed in their enclosure. All animals but the bp's are hook trained and with al the snakes that we have raised we have never had an issue with cage aggression. this topic came up the other day with a woman in a store when another woman told her I had snakes. when I asked her what and how she feeds her bp she told me large rats outside the cage and when I asked why , she said because she knows how dangerous and aggressive they get when fed in the cage. I asked what made her think that , and she said she had a burm once that she fed in the cage and everytime she tried to take it out it would strike repetedly. I asked how old and big was the burm, and her responce shocked me. She said the burm was 6 yrs old and only 5 ft. I told her if I was a burm at that age and size I would try to eat more also. She just looked at me and said I didnt know what I was talking about and would not listen to anything I had to say. I just ended up walking away.

I feed in the tank, as I don't have a suitable second tank set up for her to digest in, and I handle her enough so that she doesn't think the only reason I'm ever disturbing her is for a meal, so she's not likely to be snappy.