Feeding! do you?

Interested in how others feed..in my collection I offer, if it is not struck within a min or so it is taken away..I never leave a food item on the floor..all mine with out exception strike feed, some may not immediately but 9 out of 10 if I offer again an hour later they will..what works for you?

I dangle my feeders. If they strike and drop it then I'll leave it for a bit. Some of the boas take a few trys.

If I don't get a strike within a few minutes I reheat and offer again. If there is still no strike I just leave it in overnight. 99% of the time they get eaten over night sometime.

I use tongs to pull the mouse/rat out of the tub they are housed in and hope that I can get it off the tongs before the snake strikes.

Most feedings take less than 5 minutes per snake. Some times I feel sorry for the rodent it has no clue what is coming.

I feed f/t small rats to my BP. I warm the prey item up and then present it to the snake. She always takes it right away, but in the event that she would not, I would just leave it with her overnight.

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Originally Posted by ballmom

I use tongs to pull the mouse/rat out of the tub they are housed in and hope that I can get it off the tongs before the snake strikes.

Most feedings take less than 5 minutes per snake. Some times I feel sorry for the rodent it has no clue what is coming.

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lol! have a few like that, just dont find leaving food overnight get eaten..have an axanthic that will take a few items but occasionaly will sit on one..you find out what he's done within a day or two ..yuk :(:)

Usually I'll give my snakes a couple of minutes and if they don't strike I'll wait a couple more days then try again. Usually by then they'll be hungry enough to strike right away.

depends on the snake if they normally strike right away and don't after a minute... well i just try again a few days later. some of my live eaters take a while so i check on them every so often and take it out after about a half hour if nothing happens i take it out. carpet pythons i just set it in their cage and they eat it sometime during the night. easiest things to feed. and the jag carpet, well she just simply always eats.... i havn't had a refusal yet. in shed, deep shed, after being taken out, cage being cleaned, cage dirty, she does not care.

Mine strikes usually before I get it to the floor(live)! I would not leave it in longer than 20 minutes!

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Originally Posted by seeya205

Mine strikes usually before I get it to the floor(live)! I would not leave it in longer than 20 minutes!

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Same here. sometimes I wish it would take longer make more of a show.
:D

Here is the routine

Open enclosure - Drop Rat - Close Enclosure - Check back 10 minutes later - Remove Rat if not eaten.

Most of the time the rats don't even have time to touch the floor of the enclosure :rolleyes:.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Here is the routine

Open enclosure - Drop Rat - Close Enclosure - Check back 10 minutes later - Remove Rat if not eaten.

Most of the time the rats don't even have time to touch the floor of the enclosure :rolleyes:.

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Pretty much my routine as well - all live fed.

It's usually

Open drawer, drop rat - THWACK!
Open drawer, drop rat - THWACK!
and so on.

The tricky ones are the big girls that come out to greet you and would take the rat right out of your hand if you let them. Those are:

Slide drawer open, shut drawer quickly, slide drawer open, shut drawer quickly, cross self, slide drawer open, TRY to drop rat before girl grabs it, count fingers, shut drawer.

Refusals don't get offered again until their next scheduled feed (5 days for babies and juveniles, 7 days for adults).

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Pretty much my routine as well - all live fed.

It's usually

Open drawer, drop rat - THWACK!
Open drawer, drop rat - THWACK!
and so on.

The tricky ones are the big girls that come out to greet you and would take the rat right out of your hand if you let them. Those are:

Slide drawer open, shut drawer quickly, slide drawer open, shut drawer quickly, cross self, slide drawer open, TRY to drop rat before girl grabs it, count fingers, shut drawer.

Refusals don't get offered again until their next scheduled feed (5 days for babies and juveniles, 7 days for adults).

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Haha, this made me laugh. There's nothing like getting a big female staring you square in the eye during feeding time. I find some of my snakes would rather have a go at me than the rat. Anywho--back to the question. I feed f/t. If the snake does not strike right away, I'll dangle the prey item for a while to try to entice the snake into a feeding response. If this doesn't work, I'll leave the prey item on an extra heat panel I have on the rack to keep the prey item warm, and try again in 15 or 20 minutes. If the snake strikes, drops, and doesn't show interest in finishing what it started, I'll carefully remove the rat and warm and repeat. A lot of the times my strike and drop snakes don't want to wait for the reheat, and will nab the food as I'm removing it, so I always give them another wiggle and another shot at it. I've found snakes usually won't drop more than once, haha. If the prey goes uneaten, I'll leave it in for maybe an hour or two. If it's still uneaten, it gets refrozen. I had an overnight mishap with a pinky. The thing decomposed quicker than lightning, and the liquified mouse cleanup was a little too much of a smelly hassle for me to want to chance it again, haha. For that reason I don't leave any prey overnight.

Cheers,
-Matt

My bp's and carpet all strike every time, but the king is a pain- gotta dangle it in front of him for a while before he'll strike. Sometimes he'll eat if I just lay it in there but not always