How do you feed a snake without it biting you?

I heard that one reason snake owners get bitten by their snake is because it may expect food every time the top is opened. How do you prevent this?

That is not true...if you keep them on a feeding schedule they usually know when meal time comes around and also they have to smell their pray...i feed both of my bp's in their tanks and i can still reach in and pick them up.

The only time I have seen this be an issue with people who rarely do anything with the snake other than open the tank to feed it.

Most keepers spend more time in the cage/tank/tub changing water, cleaning, viewing/holding than they do feeding. My snakes only expect food when they smell it in the room. At that time, be careful opening up the cages!

I feed both my Kings, my Bairds Rat and now my two corns, since they moved up to small mice, in their vivs. They have yet to strike me when i open up the door to viv at anytime. Both the Kings will come racing towards the door when i open up but i quickly show them the back of my hand and they calm down straight away. The Bairds Rat is that laid back he barely flinches when i open up the door and both corns just sort of look about them when i open up the viv. If their is no prey scent on your hand, you shouldn't get bit. What i have noticed with Kings, that once you feed them and then put your hand in a short while later, whether it smells of prey or not, they will usually strike at anything that moves in their viv

I though there was this whole thing of placing the snake in another place and feeding it there so it doesn't expect food whenever you open the top. I guess there isn't.

Some people do it, there was a poll a while back asking if they feed outside or in the enclosure. I think feeding inside the enclosure was by a large margin the winner of that poll.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...side+enclosure

I feed mine in shoeboxes- makes things easier for me personaly.

duh lol.. never mind ;)

i just make sure i'm very deliberate in my movements and i never have a problem feeding in the cage...
to clarify, i dont dangle my hands in front of the snake's mouth (ok i did it once but never again!), i just reach in and grab them without dinking around. once they're in my hands it's obviously not a problem.

tongs. /nod

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cassandra

tongs. /nod

---

Not me. I don't take chances, so this is what I use on feeding day. :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xdeus

Not me. I don't take chances, so this is what I use on feeding day.

---

What kind of snakes do you keep? Wild-caught Retics :rofl:? Anyway, this situation doesn't matter with my Checkered Garter b/c his head is too small to get anywhere (that's why I feed him invertabrates), but I thought this could be a problem with the Hognose I'm getting in November. Basically I should put the mouse in the cage with tweezers and there's nothing else to worry about, right?

Whether it is my BP or my colubrids I feed all of them in their enclosure, I am doing maintenance in their enclosure daily and they do not associate opening their enclosure with food they do however know when feeding day is, simply because they are conditioned with a good routine of feeding the same day every week and pre-scenting the room for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Onua Nuva

I heard that one reason snake owners get bitten by their snake is because it may expect food every time the top is opened. How do you prevent this?

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xdeus

Not me. I don't take chances, so this is what I use on feeding day. :P

---

Seems like a good idea do they make the same for women ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GA_Ball_Pythons

Seems like a good idea do they make the same for women ;)

---

It's the same suit. Sometimes I have to use it for women, too. :rofl::fishslap: