Feeding question.

Hello, I just recently purchased a young male ball python. My question is about separate enclosure feeding....

I would prefer to utilize a separate enclosure for feeding, but my question is am I able to move him back to his normal enclosure after he has the meal down?

or should I leave him in the separate container for 24-48 hours? if so I then need to set up my feeding enclosure with heat?

or is it ok to move them right after they have the meal all the way down?
Will this cause regurgitation?

any advice would be appreciated.

also, any of you who feed inside the animals normal enclosure, do you have problems with accidental strikes, im not afraid of being bit, but would rather avoid it...lol.

thanks, tim.

You can feed your snake in a separate enclosure if you want but it would be best to feed him in the enclosure that you keep him in. It is a myth that feeding in the enclosure will make your snake aggressive. I personally feed my snake in his home enclosure and I don't notice any aggression. Actually to be quite honest my snake is ready to feed as soon as I take top off of his enclosure on feeding day so I do not move him. I believe that if I moved him he probably would strike at me, lol. It boils down to whatever works for you and your snake.

Well that settles alot for me, I'll feed him in his enclosure, I dont want to put any added and quite frankly unnecessary stress on him.

Like I said, Im not afraid of being bitten, just would like to avoid it at all costs...

I can just hear my wife if I get bit, " I told you that would happen! " lol.

Thanks a ton mate :)

You are quite welcome!

hello tim, welcome to ball-pythons.net! i feed my snakes on another enclosure as well until experts on this site suggested me otherwise. what i do before (when still feeding at separate enclosure) is that i pickup the snake while it is still constricting, moving him at this point will only make him to constrict more and you dont need to worry about regurgitate since he hasnt even started swallowing yet.

but feeding in enclosure is ideal so you dont need to face issues, and i dont think they get pretty aggressive unless they smell the scent of mouse/rat lingering around. ;)

Hey thanks for the welcome, and the input, just wanted to update that my lil guy at his first F/T mouse tonight, he was eating live prey ( well thats what the lady at the petstore told me ) luckily she only had him long enough for one feeding, he is a Captive Bred BP, so I hope I wont have any problems with him taking meals for me :)

But yeah, first F/T meal down tonight!!!! woot!

now just to watch for regurgitation, which shouldnt be an issue, I have my temps currently at 82f cool side, and around 88f warm side surface temp with a basking area of 92f. So Im thinking he should be fine.

Anyways, glad to be a community member :)

haha. man consider yourself lucky and not having issues converting him to ft.. iv'e been trying on mine for a while now still wont take swallow it, it tagged it ones but let go after a little while like he knew its not live lol. anyway i'm really glad he took ft, it's considerably cheaper than live ones. :/ i'm still gonna continue with my 'quest' to make him feed ft but i need to feed it live later coz he just wont take ft lol and try ft again next week. :gj: good job on feeding him ft and preventing any injury he 'might' have when feeding live. :gj:

I agree with what's been said: it's a myth that your snake will become aggressive if you feed him in his enclosure, and it can even stress them out if you try to move them before and after feeding.

One thing that is really important is to be careful about feeding on loose substrate (aspen, coco husk, etc.) because if your prey item is damp or if your snake gets really excited about it, it's possible that your snake could ingest part of the substrate.

I used to keep mine on aspen and fed on it, but after a scare about aspen ingestion I moved him immediately onto strictly paper towels with no problems.

i agree. it happened to me that it actually ate a small wood from my substrate.. that made me move to paper towels as well.. turns out its easier to clean paper towels too without the scent of wood as well. paper towels are really good imho.

Congrats on getting him to eat F/T. 4 out of 5 of my new ones ate F/T first try. One hasn't yet, I am hoping she will soon. :D

I personally have separate tanks for feeding and I see no negative affects from switching tanks for feeding and it helps keep the "food" smell out of their main tank.. But that's just me..

I've only had my snake for about 2 months now, but I've been feeding him in a separate "enclosure"(it's just one of those white USPS boxes) and I've never once had any trouble with him eating f/t mice. I keep doing it not because I'm worried about him being aggressive if I feed him in the tank, but rather because he's now come to associate being put in the box with eating. I usually put him in while the mouse is still thawing and he spends the entire time searching for the mouse. When I go to put it in, he strikes instantly with no issues.

As for moving him back, I usually wait until he's done swallowing and has started to move around a bit more before taking him out. So far, no mice have come back up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lexxielightning

I agree with what's been said: it's a myth that your snake will become aggressive if you feed him in his enclosure, and it can even stress them out if you try to move them before and after feeding.

One thing that is really important is to be careful about feeding on loose substrate (aspen, coco husk, etc.) because if your prey item is damp or if your snake gets really excited about it, it's possible that your snake could ingest part of the substrate.

I used to keep mine on aspen and fed on it, but after a scare about aspen ingestion I moved him immediately onto strictly paper towels with no problems.

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I know zero about this as I don't have a BP (yet) but what harm would a small bit of aspen do to the snake? surely they eat dirt/bark, etc. in the wild when eating prey.

Chad

I may be mistaken, but I don't think their natural environment has the same bark that is commonly used as a substrate. In the wild, you're more likely to find wood that has largely decomposed or isn't small enough to be swallowed. The dirt isn't a real issue(though I'm sure it's not good).

The main threat from the bark is that it could get impacted and essentially stab the snake from the inside. Picture swallowing a somewhat large toothpick. If that poked both edges into the side of your throat, you'd have no way to swallow it and it could likely poke a hole in your throat.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tidus10

I personally have separate tanks for feeding and I see no negative affects from switching tanks for feeding and it helps keep the "food" smell out of their main tank.. But that's just me..

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jeo123

I've only had my snake for about 2 months now, but I've been feeding him in a separate "enclosure"(it's just one of those white USPS boxes) and I've never once had any trouble with him eating f/t mice. I keep doing it not because I'm worried about him being aggressive if I feed him in the tank, but rather because he's now come to associate being put in the box with eating. I usually put him in while the mouse is still thawing and he spends the entire time searching for the mouse. When I go to put it in, he strikes instantly with no issues.

As for moving him back, I usually wait until he's done swallowing and has started to move around a bit more before taking him out. So far, no mice have come back up.

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I do the same thing. I feed live. My tank is "designer" - too many places for a rat to wedge himself into that a snake can't get to. No rat poop allowed in my tanks either. So, I feed in separate enclosure wait for the snake to completely finish swallowing/re-aligning its jaw and move him back to his tank. No problems.

I saw a couple people write that cage aggro is a myth, thats just sillly. It maybe uncommon in BPs but to tell a new guy its a myth is bad, what if his next snake is not a ball. I have seen it in boas, and I have 2 balls that where feed in there cages before I got them, and they act differant when i open there lid, They dont strike but they have a differant look on there face, till I touch them they are in food mode, This is in fact cage aggersion, my balls always size it up before striking, where the boas and corns i have had in the past, shoot first and ask if they can swallow it after. The BPs tendecty check out there food before they strike IMHO is the reason that they have "no cage aggro". not that they arent in food mode when you open the cage.



chris