What time do you guys feed?

Hey Guys,

So I have been having trouble getting all of my snakes to eat.

I have a 2200 gram female that eats nothing but ASF and she wouldn't touch food for almost a month.
I was getting discouraged so I wanted to try feeding at night.

Last night/this morning at 2am I tried feeding and EVERYONE ate. The big female took 3!
I was very impressed. I prefer to feed at night but the wife gets upset when I start playing with the snakes in the middle of the night ahaha.

When do you guys feed/ when do you think the best time is considering balls are nocturnal.

Cheers,
Chris.

I feed after I get home with the feeders. :P my older snakes eat whenever, They don't care what time but my hatchlings seem to be hungrier and feed more aggressively in the evening around 8ish.

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no 'whenever works"? cause that's usually when I do it...no time specifications....

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I guess...the day then.

well, at first I was more timid about eeding, so I waited till about 11, but now I've started feeding when I get home with rat.

I feed at night usually, between 10 to 1am. I believe they are actually crepuscular versus nocturnal, so I'd venture to say that the most 'natural' times to feed are at dusk and dawn.

The one thing I noticed had a huge effect on their eating habits was bumping up the temps even 1 degree on average. I went from 88 hotspot to 90 hotspot and they were all hanging out of their hides looking insane and feeding them felt like playing a game of hungry hungry hippos.

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Originally Posted by MrLang

they are actually crepuscular versus nocturnal,

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Yes they are....

I feed them around my schedule, not around theirs...works pretty well. Some will eat all the time, others won't.

I feed anytime between 7 pm and 10 pm. All of my snakes feed readily! :gj:

I feed around 9pm, which is when her night lamp clicks over. I've fed her a little before that with no real trouble. She has also been a great feeder so i don't really worry about her too much in terms of eating. I would think anytime after the room goes dark (since they are nocturnal)

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I usually feed around 8pm. But that's because that's when its convenient for me. My boas and GTP never miss a meal. My BP is on again off again and I can't find anything that helps or doesn't. So I just feed her on a 2 week schedule along with my GTP. She usually eats. The boas eat every 10 days since they're young, but they'd eat every day if I offered, lol... :P

I feed about 7 pm, when i get home with the rats.

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I feed during the day but my biggest male has refused the last 2 rats so Im going to try feeding him at night

When ever it falls into my schedule. Usually winds up being early afternoon.

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Originally Posted by Andybill

I feed anytime between 7 pm and 10 pm. All of my snakes feed readily! :gj:

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Diddo. I get home from work by 8pm and usually everyones fed by 10pm.

Maybe ill try feeding my pickier ones late at night and see if i get a different response.

As far as the hotspots go i found the opposite to be true for me at least. I had mine at 90 and then since the ambient temps were warmer during the summer i dropped it to 87-88. My snakes are still on the cool side much more often and theyre definetly eating better.

I feed when my rat guy delivers, around 4:30 every Wednesday.

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Mine usually get fed between 7 and midnight. All depends on my school and work schedule.


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I feed all times of the day, as long as they eat the food, that's all that matters. As some are saying, they can be picky and only eat at night but both of mine eat at pretty much any time furring feeding day!!!


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My big girl eats live mice so she gets fed when I get home with the feeders. Everyone else gets fed 8-10 ish after I thaw everything out :)

I clean rats and pull the one to be fed off so it really depends when I get around to clean rats, either way it does not matter to them, none has ever complained that I was too late or too early :rofl:

Between 9pm and midnight. Mine haven't refused a meal since they were tiny.

I feed whenever, but usually at night on the weekends. The smallest babies get fed every 5 days and weekday feedings are usually earlier in the evening, around 6-8pm.

One thing I did that seemed to vastly improve feeding in my pickier snakes was keeping a heavy curtain or sheet over my racks. I saw it recommended by someone on here...wish I could give credit but I cannot remember who... but anyway it seems to keep temps more stable and my more nervous snakes seem to appreciate the darkness.

Every Saturday, between 6 and 9 PM. My boy's never taken longer than 15 seconds to strike, and eats in about 3 and a half minutes. I'm quite lucky.

I generally feed in the evening around 7-8. I think my girls will take their food any time though :rolleyes:. 7-8 just happens to be the time that the food is about ready after getting home for me.

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I tend to feed when there's an audience.
I think Papa Clyde likes to show off... and my daughter likes to watch.

I have a big rubbermaid tub I put him in first, and let him relax, (5 mins or so, soon as he unballs and starts cruising) and the tub smells like food, which I think gets him ready...

I'll spin "dinner" in a bag and drop it in,... takes a second...

Wed or Thursday between 10pm and midnight

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i feed every 4 days at anytime of the day once i open my tubs heads go up ready to strike

Mine get fed when I get the motivation to do it. They're offerred every 4-5 days, so if they don't accept because the time isn't to their liking it's not a tragedy. But all but one of them is greedy, so it's not a problem.

I always feed afterdark and usually on the weekend. I keep an eye on them all if one starts to show hunting activity that one may get a mid week snack. If one isnot showing any intrest in eating during a feeding day I don't offer and just try later.


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I feed around 5pm

I feed between 5pm to 10 pm my snake usually knows when it is feeding day so whenever he is up out of his that's when I feed him if not I wake him up at night :)

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Originally Posted by Dirt

I have a big rubbermaid tub I put him in first, and let him relax, (5 mins or so, soon as he unballs and starts cruising) and the tub smells like food, which I think gets him ready...

I'll spin "dinner" in a bag and drop it in,... takes a second...

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Not to sidetrack, but this isn't the advised way to feed ball pythons. 'Cage aggression' is not a concern with ball pythons. You're much more likely to get bit trying to transfer a hungry snake in feeding mode back to its cage than if you fed it there to begin with.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'spin,' but if you're trying to stun or confuse the rat before dropping it in, you're creating an unsafe atmosphere for your snake. You're just turning it into aggressive defensive mode and then dropping it in with your pet. A rat can take down a ball python in the right state of mind.

If you add the stress of being watched by several people during this whole process, at some point your snake is going to be too scared or unwilling to eat. When that happens, you'll be prying an angry, confused, gnawing rat off your pet. I assure you a rat bite is worse than a BP bite.

Not trying to harsh on you, just extending some knowledge that I've pulled from reading a lot on this website.

Cheers

I feed in the evening. My baby male normal doesn't really care what time I feed him though. My big male normal prefers the evening.

I feed whenever. Sometimes Sunday afternoons sometimes it goes into late night. None of mine seem to care.


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I started feeding between 9-10 pm. Reason being. I then check before work at 6 am to see who ate. I have 2 big girls that wont touch ft unless its left in their tub over night. And by feeding at that time and then checking, if they ever didnt eat, i could refreeze and feed again without the rat starting to rot

Neither of my guys really care on the time of day they eat

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrLang

Not to sidetrack, but this isn't the advised way to feed ball pythons. 'Cage aggression' is not a concern with ball pythons. You're much more likely to get bit trying to transfer a hungry snake in feeding mode back to its cage than if you fed it there to begin with.

Not trying to harsh on you, just extending some knowledge that I've pulled from reading a lot on this website.

Cheers

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now im not saying your wrong because it is true but i think it also depends on the snake.

before i had a rack i was kind of scared to feed in the the snake tank because then the snake would think my hand is food. so i fed in a separate tub for months with no issue my snake ate every time. never bit after i returned her to her tank. i too used to have people watch over the tub while she ate.

I prefer to feed in a separate tank so I can control the situation a little better than in his cage with all the stuff in there. I'm not about to have some dumb rodent mark up my snakes beautiful skin.

Papa Clyde strikes within the first few moments of the mouse being dropped in. I'm no expert but either he's always hungry, or he doesn't care if we're watching. And I watch because it's fascinating. maybe after a while the novelty will wear off, but for now, I watch, he eats, we're both happy.

Feeding in a seperate tank is totally up to preference imho. If something works dont fix it. If it doesnt, start changing varables

Usually I feed at about 945 pm after the 4 year old daughter goes to bed. I put the dogs in the kennel and the only light on is the fish light on their tank. I was going to switch it up this week but he went into shed so I think I will keep it the same until after it so as not to stress him more.

I actually feed after sundown.
At dusk they usually strike with a fierceness
But I do actually scent the room first. I leave my rodents in the room for a few hours before I start.


Sookie & the B.P. BallPythons™ :-D

I get my Corny and BP to eat between 12:00pm to 4:00pm each feeding day.

- CCarr33

After 8:00 pm

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Typically late evening. I like to feed a half hour after I've had lights off, then I'll turn a lamp on to give myself some light to work with but without making the snakes wary.

However, not all of my snakes care. I only have one carpet python that is picky about when he eats. One of my two current BPs is a picky eater in general, and the other gets way more active at night but has fed during the day.

My hognose snakes eat whenever, heck all colubrids I've kept have been like this.

My rainbow boas are very much only nighttime eaters.

While I've seen plenty of inconsistencies with feeding times, at least enough to say I don't HAVE to feed at night, I will say that overall activity of movement in cages jumps about 1000% during the first hour after dark and my overall feeding success is statistically higher.

I feed my (one) snake between 8 and 10PM. He's in our study, so I just close all the shutters and dim the lights around 7PM, and then I'll see him surfing around in his cage waiting for his meal. :-)

I'm hoping in the next few weeks he takes to F/T so I don't have to hang on to a mouse for the better half of the day waiting for dusk to feed.

On feeding day, I'll take frozen rats out, and leave them to thaw until around 6 or 7. By then, it should only take about 30 minutes for them to heat up in some warm water, then I feed.