Feed Inside da cage vs Outside the cage

I recently fed my snake, my first feeding. I fed it inside the cage
But many ppl says feeding outside would be better but I'm too scared
to grab the snake while it's digesting. Is feeding outside the cage worth
it?

There's no point in feeding outside the enclosure. The theory that the animal will be more aggressive in his enclosure is a myth. Also why go through the trouble of bothering the animal after a nice meal picking them up and putting them back. Do you and your snake a favor and just feed in the cage.


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Bunker down for this one pal!!!! you are going to get sooo many different opinions and reasoning. My advice, do what works best for you. I was in the same situation trying to decide. I went with outside the tank just because I wanted to lessen the (risk) of tank aggression. My daughters handle our snake often and I wanted to remove any chance of them getting bit. I feed in a separate tank, let her settle down after eating for at least 25 minutes, then gentle remove her and put her right back into her tank. She has eaten at least 8 times since I have had her and haven't had a problem yet. (knock on wood). Do what works for you!!! Thats my advice

I say if he will eat in the cage....let him. One of mine does and the other refuses unless he is in a tub with a lid....all are different but if I could get my new guy to eat in the cage I would....have tried a few time now and the last time I almost got bit......I will just go with what he prefers...

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The....the answer is The.

If your animal eats inside his/her home then go with what works best for you and the animal

As stated feeding in the cage could generate an aggressive cage response because they associate you opening the cage with food?¿? However, the same could be associated with taking out to feed. Snake says hey I'm coming out must be food time lol. So really i think the only truth is if its the right size, temp, and most importantly smell. Then thats what triggers the food response. But i am not an expert in this area just a guy who has seen no benefit in feeding in separate tub

I will add though that if i open a tub and the animal seems to be ready to eat as soon as she/he realizes that its not food its not interested in eating it :). Also you could just have an aggressive snake which is a different story lol

Feed inside the cage, all of the reasons for feeding outside the cage have been throroughly rebutted in many threads here. The outside the cage feeding myth is just one of these petstore manager fairytales that has been echoed through the years. Like Monkey said, even if it is true, why would you want your snake associating being moved with being fed. As far as I can tell it isnt true with BPs but with reticulated pythons it is true that feeding in the cage makes them associate you opening the door with food. However I would much rather deal with a large hungry predator inside his cage then outside his cage where he has completely free movement and nothing between us to keep me safe.

I have 3 BP's. All have different personalities. I understand the thought that by conditioning the snake to eat in a separate container you can limit aggression in its own cage. However, after having BP's for over a year now, I can honestly say that if you simply slow down and see what "state of mind" your python is in, you really would have to try hard to get bitten. As a new person you don't know how to "read" python body language yet, so it is hard to understand all that, but I promise you after a month or two, if you are an observant person, you will quickly know what "mode" your snake is in.

One of my BP's was an aggressive baby. Every time I tried to handle her she would strike. I was as calm as I could be about it, and took my time and after about 2 or 3 months, she settled down and would let me hold her without showing any aggression. Now, she was and is still an aggressive feeder. Soon as I dangle the rat in her cage she is all over it, one strike and lights out! There are times in the evening if I want to hold her I can tell by looking at her that she is thinking I am going to feed her. So I know if I stuck my hand in the cage while she is in this "feeding mode" she may try and strike my warm hand. However, when I notice she is like this, I simply take a stick or some object and touch her lightly with it. This makes her "snap out of" feeding mode and she usually quickly retreats to her hide. I then remove the hide and pick her up from her back end. I've done this a lot and again, have never been tagged. Once she is out of feeding mode, she won't strike, cause I've held her enough that she is used to it.

I feed all my snakes in their cages because it is less work for me and I think less stress for them. Sure, you can feed outside of the enclosure if you want, but to me, it is just more work. At least in her cage I know the temps are right and I don't have to worry about heating a temporary enclosure for her to eat her meal in.

But all of this comes down to reading your snakes body language. And ultimately don't you need to do that anyway if you move the snake from the cage to the temporary feeding container?

Ball Pythons are really chill compared to other snakes. For a new person they may seem a bit intimidating at first, but after a while you will just view them as puppy dogs.

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Originally Posted by Rob

There's no point in feeding outside the enclosure. The theory that the animal will be more aggressive in his enclosure is a myth. Also why go through the trouble of bothering the animal after a nice meal picking them up and putting them back. Do you and your snake a favor and just feed in the cage.


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Oh thanks for telling me it's a myth phew~ I think my snake is fine at the moment about feeding inside
but I'll be open minded thx

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Originally Posted by supamyk

Bunker down for this one pal!!!! you are going to get sooo many different opinions and reasoning. My advice, do what works best for you. I was in the same situation trying to decide. I went with outside the tank just because I wanted to lessen the (risk) of tank aggression. My daughters handle our snake often and I wanted to remove any chance of them getting bit. I feed in a separate tank, let her settle down after eating for at least 25 minutes, then gentle remove her and put her right back into her tank. She has eaten at least 8 times since I have had her and haven't had a problem yet. (knock on wood). Do what works for you!!! Thats my advice

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Yup haha It's really cool watching him strike for the first time

Quote:

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Originally Posted by supamyk

Bunker down for this one pal!!!! you are going to get sooo many different opinions and reasoning. My advice, do what works best for you. I was in the same situation trying to decide. I went with outside the tank just because I wanted to lessen the (risk) of tank aggression. My daughters handle our snake often and I wanted to remove any chance of them getting bit. I feed in a separate tank, let her settle down after eating for at least 25 minutes, then gentle remove her and put her right back into her tank. She has eaten at least 8 times since I have had her and haven't had a problem yet. (knock on wood). Do what works for you!!! Thats my advice

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Yup thx haha Its really cool watching him strike for the first time

I always read to feed outside the tank, so I did. I still do with my corn snake and when I foster a snake. I used to with my ball python but now that's he's fat and healthy, Thursday are almost guaranteed a bite if you get within range! He's such an aggressive feeder but a baby otherwise. So he gets fed in his tank and his personality doesn't change, other than his feeding day. Like people have said before, what you want and what your snake will tolerate.

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Originally Posted by 18parkky

Yup thx haha Its really cool watching him strike for the first time

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One of the best parts of keeping snakes!


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I use small mammal aspen bedding for my ball witch has quite large shavings and would have more of a risk of an impaction if she swallowed it than if she swallowed normal snake bedding, so i feed her in a box outside her tank. I would still feed her outside with any bedding other than AstroTurf, repticarpet, or newspaper though. As far as tank aggression goes its kinda a tricky situation. it may cause your snake to have tank agro but probably not.

I feed mine outside of the cage to prevent aggression and to avoid it thinking that hands are meals.

I have a routine that has worked for years to feed in tank. I use for both my corn snake - a very aggressive eater, and my ball - who is less aggressive.

I always feed with the lights out. I always handle with the lights on.

If it is daylight or the room light is on they are going to be handled and they do not go into a feeding response.

If the lights are off and it's nighttime - food time! I have also had good luck feeding at night since both are nocturnal.

I have never had a feeding response during the day or at night with lights on. I know others who put a towel over their ball when it's handling time versus feeding time. All sorts of things work to have them associate handling vs. food time.

Bottom line: Feed in the tank. Especially with balls who can be shy. Shayna, our ball, is incredibly shy and I doubt would eat if I moved her and tried to feed her. My corn probably would eat either way, but why add the stress to them of moving, etc.

Just my two cents.

David

Ah, the old impaction risk paradigm:

Always cautioned about, never experienced.

Another forum phenomenon........

I have always fed in the cage, and so no reason to stop. So my advice would be to always feed in the cage...YMMV

Feeding outside the enclosure is a total myth, passed along mostly by pet stores to get a newb to buy a second tank and more unnecessary accessories! I have 12 ball pythons and have always fed in their enclosures. I've had rainbow boas, kings and corns fed in their enclosures as well. None have ever shown aggression afterwards as I give them until the next day undisturbed. I have also never had an impaction issue from feeding in their enclosure. What do you think happens in the wild...they kill their prey and then find a nice clean spot free of dirt or leaves to eat? Hardly. I've watched mine eat countless times and if substrate is stuck on the prey it almost always falls off as the snake works its way down the prey's body. And when it doesn't it's no big deal.

I'm lazy so i'm just reposting what I wrote in the last thread (dont judge me, im on a phone ;) ) :

Since I feed live, I feed all my snakes in a seperate container outside the cage and never had a snake bite me or regurgitate their food. My snakes don't get into strike mode until I put them into the container. Then, they know their meal is coming.

With live feedings, I have more control in case the mouse or the rat bites my snake during constriction. Also, mice and rats poop a whole lot in a small amout of time. I don't want that all over my terrarium.

You can either feed in the terrarium or in a seperate contanier. It's really up to you. I wish people would calm down with their opinions in this subject...

In my experience, all 5 of my BPs eat well in seperate containers without getting stressed out. BPs aren't as fragile as people think.

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I feed all mine inside there cages and never had any issues

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I started out feeding in a seperate enclosure, but that was when I had only a few. After getting many more snakes its ALOT easier to just feed in their own enclosure. Trying to take each one out, feed, wait a bit, then goto the next one it would take me all day to feed. Feeding in their enclosure I can feed all of them at once in less than an hour.

I know we are talking ball pythons here but I can't emphasize enough how bad of an idea it is to feed a large constrictor outside of its enclosure. With BPs the risks are low because they can't do much damage but with larger stuff it only takes one SFE (stupid feeding error) to end up dead. Feeding outside regardless of species is adding a possibility to get bitten due to the extra steps involved. Not a huge deal for ball pythons if you don't mind a bite or two. I've actually never even come close to being tagged by my retic but have had several near misses with the ball pythons. I think this has to do with me being so cautious around my retic but being loosey goosey with my smaller snakes. Everyone talks about retics having a ridiculous feeding response and they do but I've had plenty of female BPs eat and then continue on looking for more food which is right around the time folks would be moving them back to their enclosures...

I'm not saying one way is right and the other is wrong. I'm only saying what works for me and the best feeding response I have got from my BP.
I feed in the enclosure during early afternoon with the light on. I do the zombie dance at the opening of her hide and she starts moving out. I will pull the rat back until she moves to an open area of her enclosure. This gives her room to constrict and eat without things getting in the way. She will strike, eat, and appear to be looking for more prey right after. I don't feed her twice, I just feed one appropriate size rat every 5 days. She is only 5 months old, but never struck at me or even acted like she wanted to unless it was feeding time.

I say just feed the way u want. If u feed in the main enclosure, maybe some BP's do always associate the lid opening to feeding. Nobody can say they all do. I dont feed mine in a different one. I feed mine in the same one that i pick him up in. He has never associated it with feeding. Ok, he sticks his head out to look. And, maybe one day he eventually will. But, he is good for now. So, i think it just varies from snake to snake.

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I just have to support what other guys said. Find out what best works for your snake. My guy rejected feeding in a separate box for two times and since then I have always fed in the enclosure without any problems, sometimes a bit of bedding (in case you don't have paper as a bedding) can get on the rat, which, in my opinion, is not serious when those are not large sharp pieces. My BP also likes to pull the prey into his hide and eat it there without being disturbed.
Try and see what suits him the best :P. After all, each one of us has different techniques for feeding, breeding, enclosure set-up, etc. Sometimes it is just trial and error (!!! only to the limits where you do not hurt your snake !!!).

Good luck ;)