Where do you feed your bp?

Hey everyone, new to the site and very new to bp. I've had my little guy for a couple days and tomorrow it's supposed to be feeding day. The seller told me he is used to eating frozen mice. My question is, where do you feed your snake? and how do you feed with a frozen mouse? My husband had one a couple years ago and fed his live, in the bathtub on a towel, and his ate very well. So any info or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

well I fed live or fresh killed and all 27 of mine eat in their own tubs.

with mine i feed him live and in his tank but with some you have to leave them alone for a little bit

thaw out the frozen mouse but not to much or it will run the chance of exploding. Heat the head of the mouse with some hot warm and then present to the snake in its enclosure. Thats how I feed all my snakes on frozen thawed. If they dont like to be bothered the rat gets left in the tub and within an Hour the snake will eat in on its own. All my snakes are fed in there tubs

I feed all mine F/T rats and in there enclosures as well. I let mine defrose outside in the shade for 2 or 3 hours, then put them in warm water for about 5 min before I feed. Never had a problem doing it that away

and by hot i dont mean boiling just warm the head up a bit. also what i meant but defrosting it to much is dont try and defrost it in real hot water or youll be cleaning rat guts up from everywhere

Thanks everyone. I've just heard that if you feed inside their cage they may become aggressive when reaching in to get them. Like I said, I'm new to this. I don't want to turn my (so far) quite pleasant and happy, docile snake into an aggressive one.

I feed all my snakes F/T rats in their own enclosures. I just thaw out the prey item, then when I'm about to feed it off I give the face of the prey item a bit of a blast of warm air with the hair dryer in front of the snake's enclosure to let them know that food is coming and to get them psyched up a bit about it. Then I open the enclosure door and offer the prey item by holding it at the base of the tail with a set of tongs.

As for the cage aggresion, I've never had an issue with that with any of my snakes (except the corn, but that's a different story :rolleyes: she's just angry all the time). Mostly it's just a myth, as long as you adhere to a good handling schedule then they know that it isn't feeding time every time the cage is opened.

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Originally Posted by ShaleneRafuse

Thanks everyone. I've just heard that if you feed inside their cage they may become aggressive when reaching in to get them. Like I said, I'm new to this. I don't want to turn my (so far) quite pleasant and happy, docile snake into an aggressive one.

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That's a myth. Feed him inside his tub/tank to prevent less stress and give yourself a better chance of him eating consistantly. I feed both live and F/T and both have their pros and cons.

Regards,

B

I prefer to feed mine in the mouth. It really works better than the other end... ;)

Sorry, couldn't help it! haha

I feed all of mine in their enclosures. Live, pre-killed, or F/T, whichever I have at the time.

I feed all of mine in their own enclosures..
the only ones that eat out of their enclosures, are some of my corns.. I actuall give them their mouse on top of their screen lid so they don't get aspen. But I really agree with thhis way being better due to less stress. And re: biting .. when I start feeding snakes, mine smell it / get excited anyway, so they are already in a "feeding" state regardless.

i feed live & in the terrarium.

In their tubs. All but one of mine now take prekilled or FT just left in their tub so there is no reason to do anything else.

Well I tried feeding him last night. He didn't go for it. So I left the f/t mouse in his cage with his head peeking into his hide. Still didn't eat as of this morning. Got rid of the mouse. question...should I wait and try in a week? My guess is he's still settling in.

I do it different than most people. I DO NOT feed in my snakes normal enclosure. I move them all to their separate feeding container and give them about 10-15 minutes in there before giving them the food. To defrost the food, I heat up a cup of hot water (3 minutes in the microwave is perfect), then drop the frozen rodents (all in ziploc bags) into the cup. I check the temperature of the mice before feeding. It usually takes about 20 minutes for it to be the right temperature. I have never had any problems with feeding this way. And while they are eating, I clean their normal enclosures. Now, once I get a rack system and start breeding, I will probably do things differently. But the snakes I have now are pets that small children play with, so even if it is a myth that feeding in the normal enclosure will make an aggressive snake, that's still a chance I'm not taking. In your situation with your snake not eating, I would wait and try again. Settling in can take a while sometimes. I have had a couple times when mine refused to eat until I reheated the mouse so that may an issue too. It stayed in there with them long enough to cool off and I guess they prefer it to be warm.

I used to feed in seperate enclosures as well. I never had a problem with any of my BPs but I had alot more Boas then. I had a 08 Female Sharp Sunglow (aprox. 4.5') that was a pain to get back into her enclosure after feeding. I would wait 1 hour after they ate before moving them back into there Tanks, and even with waiting that hour she was still very much in feed mode. Any other day she was as tame as all my others and would be handled if not every day then every other day ( she was beautiful ) but she just had a HUGE feeding response. After she bit my wife twice I decided to start feeding in there tanks (about a year and a half ago) and it made no difference in there behavior. Alot easier for me on feeding day and they all eat great. I sold that boa to a friend of mine as a pet (he is not a breeder) since I decided to go more with B.Ps but I still feed everything in there homes. :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

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Originally Posted by ShaleneRafuse

Well I tried feeding him last night. He didn't go for it. So I left the f/t mouse in his cage with his head peeking into his hide. Still didn't eat as of this morning. Got rid of the mouse. question...should I wait and try in a week? My guess is he's still settling in.

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I'd bet money that he's still getting used to everything, so just give him a break, don't mess around in his cage more than you need to (water change and cleaning is fine) and then try again in a week. It's really no big deal to him if he misses one meal, he'll be just fine.

I feed my BP in a different inclosure. It wasn't because I was worried about aggression. He just wouldn't eat any other way. Now when I put him in his box he knows whats up. He gets all excited and practically wags his tail like a puppy being offered a snack. It would be easier if he ate in his enclosure like my boa but Its just one snake that is a little more effort. I can't complain because as long as he's in his feed box then he eats like a champ!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm really so glad I found this place. I feel like I am getting great advice and information.:)

I have a 4 year old female I got from a friend. She was used to being fed live in her enclosure and she gets 4 live adult mice every 2 weeks. Since she won't eat F/T or prekilled her former owner was afraid to give her rats incase she got injured.
I tried feeding last Friday after I had her for a week. I fed in a seperate tub because I was worried about her swallowing some substrate. Infact I lined the tub with paper towels and she even got a piece of that but didn't end up swallowing any.

Anyways, she ate all 4 mice and had a voracious feeding response. I was a very proud pappa lol.

Mine all get fed in their tubs. I feed mine f/t except for the persnickity one who only eats live. (so far)

I feed in the enclosure. I will take stuff out of the way first though. Also, to make it different than reaching to handle them, I will use handsanitizer first when I handle them but on feeding day I don't use any when I reach in there.