A quick feeding response video

I love the feeding response in my snakes, and wanted to share some footage of it. Maybe next week I will pre scent them all, have the rats on a platter, and make an even faster one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8_XO...ature=youtu.be

That's pretty impressive. I feed both of mine live, since that is what they are used to, but they eat good and strike just as fast. But I don't feed mine in their enclosures, I don't really want them to think it's feeding time each time I stick my hands in there. So far so good. Are yours just as tame regardless? :) Beautiful snakes by the way, I love their colors.

Most of feed in the enclosure, less chance of us getting bit while they are in feed mode and less stress on the snake therefore less chance of regurgitation. They do not get cage aggressive because of feeding in their enclosure

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Originally Posted by KayleighBrown

That's pretty impressive. I feed both of mine live, since that is what they are used to, but they eat good and strike just as fast. But I don't feed mine in their enclosures, I don't really want them to think it's feeding time each time I stick my hands in there. So far so good. Are yours just as tame regardless? :) Beautiful snakes by the way, I love their colors.

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As long as you're opening the enclosure for other reasons (cleaning, handling, water change, etc) on a regular basis you shouldn't have a problem with them associating opening the enclosure with food.

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Originally Posted by KayleighBrown

That's pretty impressive. I feed both of mine live, since that is what they are used to, but they eat good and strike just as fast. But I don't feed mine in their enclosures, I don't really want them to think it's feeding time each time I stick my hands in there. So far so good. Are yours just as tame regardless? :) Beautiful snakes by the way, I love their colors.

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This is an improper way of behavioral conditioning in my experience. Think about it from a Pavlovian standpoint, you open the cage and the grab the snake when it's feeding time and when it's handling time, the animal does not know whether it's feeding time or handling time until it observes the feeding cage or an absence there of. This is too much in between time for me, especially when I am working with large snakes like retics...for this reason I have my conditioning centered around letting the snake know immediately, sometimes before I even enter the cage. If I am doing maintenance or handling then I open the cage and immediately pet the animal, no hesitation, or, in the case of my retics, I stroke them with my snake hook prior to handling them; however, during feeding time, all my specimens see is me, my feeding tongs, and the rat...nothing else.

I also take the mice in about a half hour before I feed, they smell them and therefore know it's feeding time. When I go in for handling/ maintenance there's no mouse smell. I'll tell you... they know the difference :).
Note: I also feed live

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Ah okay. I apologize if I seem like a dunce. I seem to be getting mixed information from all kinds of people where I live. I've had people tell me different things when it comes to my ball pythons, and if I seem stupid, well then I'm sorry. D: But I am glad you guys are taking time to explain these things to me, because it's making me learn all the more. If it really isn't that much of a problem, then I don't think I'm going to move my pythons from their tanks anymore during feeding time. So thank you. ^^

You're not a dunce :) I've noticed a lot of people are told that and believe it or not its actually on Petcos care sheet!!!


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No, it's not stupid, for a long time the conventional wisdom was that feeding in the enclosure caused cage aggression. I can tell you right now that there is no way I would even attempt to move my larger boas from their enclosures into a "feeding tub" when the smell of feeders is in the air. They have very strong feeding responses and are ready to strike as soon as the door opens. When it's not feeding day I open the door and they don't even twitch, they know the difference.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom with me you guys, appreciate it. And yeah, I think it was a Petco employee who told me about feeding them in a different area. And me being a first time snake owner, I believed it, it made sense to me at the time. I'm new at this you know? And the Petco employees act all knowledgeable and stuff so it's easy to believe whatever comes out of their mouth. >.<

If only they were all that easy to feed lol, has to make you feel good with all responses like that :gj:

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Originally Posted by KayleighBrown

Thanks for sharing your wisdom with me you guys, appreciate it. And yeah, I think it was a Petco employee who told me about feeding them in a different area. And me being a first time snake owner, I believed it, it made sense to me at the time. I'm new at this you know? And the Petco employees act all knowledgeable and stuff so it's easy to believe whatever comes out of their mouth. >.<

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Acting knowledgeable and being knowledgeable are completely different. Ask where someone got that information, you will notice that the more experience one has, the more logical the advice is and the "Uhh well..I know this guy and..." is to be walked away from at once. You are far from stupid, just take it one step at a time...crack open a biology textbook and keep spending time with your specimens, you will learn.

Love the vid BTW, I think #3 and #4 would snatch the feeder out of the air like a dog if you just tossed it in there.

My one guy takes forever to strike..the other,he don't mess around. He loves the hunt. I recorded him for 20 mins yesterday stalking this rat from him coming out of his hide til he struck,was submerged in his waterbwl while choking this rat out. Pretty awesome to watch

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Love the vid BTW, I think #3 and #4 would snatch the feeder out of the air like a dog if you just tossed it in there.

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I feed #1 live occasionally, and he DOES grab the rat before it hits the ground haha. He has also taken the rat right out of the box before, too. that was kind of scary.