Where to feed question, and other newbie q's...

[epilover]

Edit: just noticed you're in Davis, my sister goes to school at UC Davis!

What's her name & year?

[gen]

Her name is Jacqui, (pronounced Jackie) and she's a second year. She's a cheerleader.

[epilover]

what's her last name? there are about 20,000 students here.

[Cody]

How many Jacqui's can you have though?

[Jake_la_serpiente]

To each his own on this topic. I do not remove my snakes when feeding. A piece of bark could harm your snake, but so could moving the snake after feeding. As for the association of hand with food, I agree with what HHW said above, "if only it was that easy." In the wild pythons do not have any papertowls or newspapers to feed on, just the "dirt plate" that mother nature provides. ;-)

[Cody]

I think swallowing substrate and getting impacted might be worse than getting stressed out from moving and regurgitating their food. Also, yes, in the wild pythons eat on the dirt ground, but they also have disease, predators, and other harmful things in the wild. Comparing their natural habitat to their captive environment isn't the best, IMO.

[Jake_la_serpiente]

I am just saying that the natural composition of the snake will allow for digestion of substrate, similar to in the wild if they accidentally ate a pice of bark or something. In the wild they are not moved after eating by someone handling them. I was not "comparing", just making the point that it really does not matter what you choose, that the chances of huritng your snake are probablly the same. Like I said earlier....to each his own on the topic of moving from one place to the other when feeding.

Hey Cody, where did you get your icon? That is cool! That would be a sweet Tattoo!

[sophie42204]

I try to avoid any possible complications w/my animals. Why take the chance? I feed inside the enclosure and use newspaper and/or paper towels as the substrate--and feed frozen/thawed prey. Besides, not only is it cheaper but it's so much easier to maintain the enclosure. I'm not all about the 'aesthetics' value I guess. However, a lot of keepers prefer a loose substrate and have not had any issues w/the snake ingesting any of the substrate. As mentioned, if you decide to feed in the tank, it's a good idea to cover the substrate w/ some paper towels or newspaper first.