feed in tank or another tank/tub?

I have fed inside the tank and outside the tank. Both were very effective. I choose to feed in the tank now because it is more convenient and I see no ill effects.
Is either way wrong or bad for the snake? No

I do believe that feeding in a separate enclosure can lead to stress or a regurgitation.
Often times peoples snakes don't eat because they were told to feed in a separate enclosure. The process of moving the snake to a tub or box and then throwing a mouse in can be overwhelming for some snakes. Not all snakes will have a problem, but some will. I have never heard of a ball python not feeding because it wasn't being fed in a separate enclosure.

There are pros to both methods, but I find that the cons of the "outside the enclosure" method are worse than those of the "inside the enclosure".

I feed in the tank.

I got my 8month old girl second hand and the previous owners did try getting her to feed in a separate tank but she just wouldnt eat there. She is incredibly docile and hasnt stuck at me once (thus far) despite tank feeding.

What I tend to do is if Im opening the tank for a handling session I open it straight up and take her out swiftly. If Im going to be feeding her, I let the smell of the rodent waft near her tank for 10mins until she 'clocks on' to feeding time, before opening the tank. You can usually tell her excitement by mental tongue flicking!

This is not a very common myth. There are ill effects of feeding your snake in it's enclosure. The only time it causes the snake to be aggressive is anytime you open the enclosure. Say you get the snake out twice a week, you will most likeyly be bit at least once. So you should feed you feed it once a week. Your snake is going to mistake you for food and you could end up hurting yourself or the snake. Please think people!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

This is not a very common myth. There are ill effects of feeding your snake in it's enclosure. The only time it causes the snake to be aggressive is anytime you open the enclosure. Say you get the snake out twice a week, you will most likeyly be bit at least once. So you should feed you feed it once a week. Your snake is going to mistake you for food and you could end up hurting yourself or the snake. Please think people!

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Seriously bro?

I feed my four BP's in their tubs and handle each several times a week. According to you I should have been bitten several hundred times by now, yet it has only happened once.

Can you please enlighten me on these "ill effects" caused by feeding snakes in their enclosure, because you didn't give any real reasons in your last post.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

This is not a very common myth. There are ill effects of feeding your snake in it's enclosure. The only time it causes the snake to be aggressive is anytime you open the enclosure. Say you get the snake out twice a week, you will most likeyly be bit at least once. So you should feed you feed it once a week. Your snake is going to mistake you for food and you could end up hurting yourself or the snake. Please think people!

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Mikey:

Since you've joined this site, we've read how your snake was hurt in a live feeding incident, how you thought it was appropriate to house two unsexed animals together for the sake of "companionship" and how you've had shedding issues and problems keeping your basking temps up.

While there is nothing wrong with coming on a forum and fine tuning your husbandry skills, it's bad form to give out incorrect or bad advice based on something you read or heard second hand - especially when what you heard was wrong.

I would caution you to not push your theories on enclosure aggression too hard. Your idea that feeding in an enclosure causes aggression is obviously based on something that you've heard, not experienced.

The collective experiences of a vast majority of hobbyists and breeders contradict your claim.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

This is not a very common myth. There are ill effects of feeding your snake in it's enclosure. The only time it causes the snake to be aggressive is anytime you open the enclosure. Say you get the snake out twice a week, you will most likeyly be bit at least once. So you should feed you feed it once a week. Your snake is going to mistake you for food and you could end up hurting yourself or the snake. Please think people!

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Aren't you the guy who thought that BPs needed companionship?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Mikey:

Since you've joined this site, we've read how your snake was hurt in a live feeding incident, how you thought it was appropriate to house two unsexed animals together for the sake of "companionship" and how you've had shedding issues and problems keeping your basking temps up.

While there is nothing wrong with coming on a forum and fine tuning your husbandry skills, it's bad form to give out incorrect or bad advice based on something you read or heard second hand - especially when what you heard was wrong.

I would caution you to not push your theories on enclosure aggression too hard. Your idea that feeding in an enclosure causes aggression is obviously based on something that you've heard, not experienced.

The collective experiences of a vast majority of hobbyists and breeders contradict your claim.

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Yeah that was him alright lol. +1 for actual real world experience.

I feed my girl in her enclosure and only handle her 2-3 times a week and she has never even come close to striking at me. I'm sure I'll get nailed at some point but anyone who owns any animal will eventually.

Mikey, seriously stop giving out bad/recycled advice while you have little/no actual experience on this subject. Yeah I'm a noob too, I'm not going around telling people how to breed BPs or how to run a BP business but I will chime in on crap like this when I have real experience with it. My advice is for you to get some yourself.

Coming in this thread a bit late but...

I've had my snakes almost a year and my local breeder said to feed in paper bags to give them privacy and to prevent food aggression.

Now I know from reading a few threads that feeding in there cage is a better option.(not that they seemed to care about eating in bags:snake:) My only concern is, what if they get the rodent covered in cypress mulch? I haven't found an answer for that one.

Thanks

Use aspen and your risk for impaction is almost nil. My girl always winds up getting a little aspen on the mouse when she eats it and she poops like clockwork. You'll hear all sorts of conflicting opinions on this but I am of the belief that these animals eat all sorts of dirt, twigs, debris in the wild(on the prey) and they have to digest full rodent skeletons to pass them and have no issues with either. Finely shredded aspen is not going to hurt them. Not sure about cypress but I'd switch if I were worried about it as you seem to be. Or just use newspaper for substrate and forget the issue altogether.

As for a paper bag? Never heard that one before for feeding normally. I HAVE heard of it for problem eaters, leaving a f/t mouse/rat in a brown bag with them for a few hours... I dunno, in my personal experience I hang a f/t mouse in front of my girl's hide, she comes flying out, grabs it, hangs on for about a minute and then she drags her "kill" back into her hide and swallows it. I usually pick the hide up a half hour later to make sure the mouse is gone or that she isn't having issues still trying to swallow it. She is still tame as a kitten and I just make it a point to handle her about a half hour a week every week.

Like this kind of aspen?

http://www.carolinapetsupply.com/cat...ages/aspen.jpg

I agree that they do probably get mouthful of dirt or junk in the wild but I guess I just worried a piece of aspen would poke them in the mouth.

Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

This is not a very common myth. There are ill effects of feeding your snake in it's enclosure. The only time it causes the snake to be aggressive is anytime you open the enclosure. Say you get the snake out twice a week, you will most likeyly be bit at least once. So you should feed you feed it once a week. Your snake is going to mistake you for food and you could end up hurting yourself or the snake. Please think people!

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I feed 40 ball pythons weekly in their enclosure. They never attempt to bite me when I go into their enclosures the other one or two times a week. Do you know this from your personal experience? My experience says that "theory" is false.