The Age Old Question

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Originally Posted by gameonpython

Petstores do sell vibrating dishes.


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which is why the phrase 'There's a sucker born every minute' is still so popular.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

which is why the phrase 'There's a sucker born every minute' is still so popular.

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Although .... if they work !??

Those vibrating food dishes are made by the same people who sell canned crickets so that the crickets look 'alive'. Seems pretty ridiculous to me, just another gimmick to separate people from their money. You say your reptile won't eat?? Just buy this vibrating food dish, you can put it in the bag along with your freeze dried canned mealworms, your shed aid, your calcisand, and your hot rocks.

I've been keeping snakes for over 30 years, I've been breeding them for about 24 years and ball pythons in particular for about 14 years and I have to admit that using a vibrator to feed your snake is a new one on me. Now I HAVE taken non-feeders for a long drive and sometimes it appeared to work, but there are always easier ways to do it. Do you really want to work THAT hard to get your snake to switch to frozen? Just feed the snake what it's willing to eat, if that means you need to feed it live, then feed it live. Most of the people that I know who actually breed snakes for a living and who keep thousands of animals feed live. Personally, MOST of my snakes eat frozen/thawed prey because that is my PREFERENCE. Just because some people prefer to feed live does NOT mean that they are dooming their pets to a horrible disfiguring death. Yes it CAN happen, I personally have SEEN it happen, but it is very very rare.

For over a decade now I've been volunteering with my local herp societies adoption committee. We take in unwanted animals and try to place them in good homes and I've seen some incoming animals in REALLY horrible condition. I've seen plenty of snakes coming in with rat bite scars, most of that is from people who simply toss a rat in the snake cage and then walk away, but I've seen even MORE snakes coming in half starved because 'the darn thing just wont eat...' I've taken a number of these animals home, tossed in a live rodent and guess what??? They DO eat. It's truly amazing.

As far as feeding in the cage. Many years ago I used to keep my snakes on wood chips and fed them their frozen thawed rats on paper plates. They did fine and I felt better about myself for not feeding them on a particulate substrate. Then one day I ran out of paper plates so I fed them without and guess what? They ate just fine that way too.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Those vibrating food dishes are made by the same people who sell canned crickets so that the crickets look 'alive'. Seems pretty ridiculous to me, just another gimmick to separate people from their money. You say your reptile won't eat?? Just buy this vibrating food dish, you can put it in the bag along with your freeze dried canned mealworms, your shed aid, your calcisand, and your hot rocks.

I've been keeping snakes for over 30 years, I've been breeding them for about 24 years and ball pythons in particular for about 14 years and I have to admit that using a vibrator to feed your snake is a new one on me. Now I HAVE taken non-feeders for a long drive and sometimes it appeared to work, but there are always easier ways to do it. Do you really want to work THAT hard to get your snake to switch to frozen? Just feed the snake what it's willing to eat, if that means you need to feed it live, then feed it live. Most of the people that I know who actually breed snakes for a living and who keep thousands of animals feed live. Personally, MOST of my snakes eat frozen/thawed prey because that is my PREFERENCE. Just because some people prefer to feed live does NOT mean that they are dooming their pets to a horrible disfiguring death. Yes it CAN happen, I personally have SEEN it happen, but it is very very rare.

For over a decade now I've been volunteering with my local herp societies adoption committee. We take in unwanted animals and try to place them in good homes and I've seen some incoming animals in REALLY horrible condition. I've seen plenty of snakes coming in with rat bite scars, most of that is from people who simply toss a rat in the snake cage and then walk away, but I've seen even MORE snakes coming in half starved because 'the darn thing just wont eat...' I've taken a number of these animals home, tossed in a live rodent and guess what??? They DO eat. It's truly amazing.

As far as feeding in the cage. Many years ago I used to keep my snakes on wood chips and fed them their frozen thawed rats on paper plates. They did fine and I felt better about myself for not feeding them on a particulate substrate. Then one day I ran out of paper plates so I fed them without and guess what? They ate just fine that way too.

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Well said. I prefer FT. One of my snakes prefer live. On a very rare occasion I can put a FT in and after a thorough inspection she will eat it. Most of the time she picks it up and dumps it in her water dish and returns to slithering back and forth in front of her doors. As soon as I put a live rat in bang! [emoji298]️its gone! Is it a pain in the butt to have to drive a two hour round trip to get a live rat? Yes but she's worth it :)


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SO, I'm still very new at this, having gotten my first BP just a few months ago. That being said I did a lot of research and disscussed our options with people that have kept and bred snakes for years. Probobly 90% of them said in- tank feeding was better for a BP as they are rarly get aggressive unless they smell mouse/rat anyway, and moving them can be a bit probematic. The few that recomemded a seperate feeding tubs were breeders that rarely handeled the individual snakes. We handle smpson almost dayly, and feed live (honestly I don't even use tongs, I just pull off his hide about an hour before feeding time, then drop he live mouse in from safe distance. This has the added benifit of a stunnned mousey. Sampson usully stikes it before it fully recovers and so far have had no issues.

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Originally Posted by Lyssa981

SO, I'm still very new at this, having gotten my first BP just a few months ago. That being said I did a lot of research and disscussed our options with people that have kept and bred snakes for years. Probobly 90% of them said in- tank feeding was better for a BP as they are rarly get aggressive unless they smell mouse/rat anyway, and moving them can be a bit probematic. The few that recomemded a seperate feeding tubs were breeders that rarely handeled the individual snakes. We handle smpson almost dayly, and feed live (honestly I don't even use tongs, I just pull off his hide about an hour before feeding time, then drop he live mouse in from safe distance. This has the added benifit of a stunnned mousey. Sampson usully stikes it before it fully recovers and so far have had no issues.

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Separate tank feeding ideology is a myth.

You will not find keepers of multiple large constrictors doing it, it will take all day and its dangerous, you will not find any keepers of venomous snakes doing it for obvious reasons. Think about that last one for a bit.


It's covered here.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...31#post2288531

And its covered probably hundreds of other times on various chat forums including this one.

If you have a method that works for you great, but there is no NEED to use a separate feeding cage.

I USED to feed in separate tubs, but I got lazy after our move from CA to WA and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Mine are messy eaters, so I might switch back over just for convenience of cleaning... My girl has squeezed the intestines out before... She's THAT aggressive when eating... She's kind of special :) If you have an eater like that, I'd totally recommend separate containers...

I feed my BP ft small rats because he will take them. He is also fed in the tank and has never struck at me once.
I also have a female 6 foot Sorong green tree that is fed small med live rats in the tank be cause she won't even look at ft and there is no way i will move a gtp in feed mode. That being said, a day or two after feeding you can take her right off her perch and they say you can't handle chondros. Point being, it all comes down to the snake and what works for you. IMHO feeding in the tank is fine.

I have heard separate tank feeding in useful for a number of reasons, not just to prevent aggression. Like Sweet4serpents said, for messy eaters it can save you the cleanup. Also encourages snakes to go into feed mode when they are in a separate container. If you are feeding live, the prey won't poop all over the enclosure or hide in places difficult for the snake to reach if you use a separate container. I of course am not experienced, and can not prove these things, but from research and talking to experienced people this is what o have learned. Of course in tank feeding seems like a fine option IMO. I have been feeding Marshall in his tank, no aggressive behavior or anything. Working well for me. Just figured I would share the info I have gathered on separate tank feeding, but by no means do I have experience in this.


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I use a seperate for him. I just put him in a box let him eat wait like 20 minutes to pick him up again and then put him back in his home.