why does everyone hate on out of cage feeding?

[DatBoiAJ_]

I feed my bp out of her cage and it's always worked fine for me. I get that it can stress them and all, or identify you as food time, but it works better than you think. If you just take them out and put them in the tub with the food ready, there's no hassle. And you don't have to worry about substrate sticking to their "Spit" on the prey as the snake was grabbing on to it. It's an issue with a bioactive enclosure with the moss and the dirt stuff. It happened to me once and i had to pull moss and dirt/small sticks out of my snakes mouth. She'd been trying to get it out for like 10 mins and it was difficult to pull moss out of a snakes mouth lol.

[KMG]

It's easy with a smaller snake like a Ball but come try moving my large Blood(6 ft, 40lbs), my arboreals, or my Dum. You're going to get bit and will be in for a real rodeo. Though my Dum and Bloods are on newspaper, but they haven't what's been. I do move my smallest baby King but that's because he is so small he's hard to find and track while I offer food. It's easier to just put him in a small keeper to eat. That will stop once he grows a bit and had learned I'm good and bring food like my other young King.

I have had to remove mulch and stuff stuck in they're lips and such but it's very rare.

Also the time it would take me to feed would be insane. Going to be up to 14 snakes today so imagine moving them one by one to eat..... And where do you put six foot snakes eating large and extra large rats?

It would be a mess. Their cage is just best.

[nikkubus]

Most people doing it are doing so because they are told it will create a feeding response, but don't seem to understand that going to put the snake back in the enclosure, you will have the same issue, so it's better to just learn how to break feeding response and feed in the enclosure.

If you are doing so because of issues with substrate, that may be necessary. A tiny bit of dirt isn't going to hurt, but sticks, rocks, large pieces of moss could. I've had success with some animals feeding them over a plate and removing the plate after they are done. If you BP has a really strong feeding response and likes to pull the prey all over the place as they eat, a plate prob won't work though.

[Bleh]

"If you are doing so because of issues with substrate, that may be necessary" & "If you BP has a really strong feeding response and likes to pull the prey all over the place as they eat, a plate prob won't work though."

I've only ever used (decent quality) fake grass cut to size. I have spares as well so it's so easy to change over when cleaning out. My largest female thrashes her feed about on occasions pulling it all over the terrarium and I never have the worry of loose substrate sticking to the food and possibly causing any issues.

Fake grass works great for me, also use it for my leopard geckos and they quite happily sprawl themselves out over it.

[Bogertophis]

I feed my bp out of her cage and it's always worked fine for me. I get that it can stress them and all, or identify you as food time, but it works better than you think. If you just take them out and put them in the tub with the food ready, there's no hassle. And you don't have to worry about substrate sticking to their "Spit" on the prey as the snake was grabbing on to it. It's an issue with a bioactive enclosure with the moss and the dirt stuff. It happened to me once and i had to pull moss and dirt/small sticks out of my snakes mouth. She'd been trying to get it out for like 10 mins and it was difficult to pull moss out of a snakes mouth lol.

The problem here is that others come to this forum for best advice, & this surely IS NOT it.

What you can get away with for ONE snake is NOT a reason to recommend a method that has been tested countless times by others with real snake experience & with many snakes, myself included, and has been shown to be a bad idea.

The best reason NOT to feed snakes in a side container/cage is that for many snakes, it kills their desire to eat- at all! Snakes are shy, & handling them often causes fear, which means they won't eat. Fear interrupts their interest in food.

Even IF your snake is now comfortable being handled, you're MORE likely to get bit this way, because snakes stay in "feed mode" (pumped up to attack prey) for hours & sometimes even days after eating. Even if you get away with picking up your hungry snake to move them out of their home, you're likely to be setting yourself up for a nasty "feeding" bite afterwards when you try to put them back.

Feeding bites are where a snake is "sure" that you are prey & won't let go. Now I'm not saying that a ball python is going to overpower you, but bites hurt, & you are likely to injure THEM when trying to get out of the dumb position you put yourself in to begin with. Furthermore, if this practice (feeding in another container) is applied to larger snakes, it can actually be dangerous- & as I said, this forum is here to promote "best practices"- that means we don't want owners OR their snakes to be injured.

Another problem with feeding in side cages is that when owners wait a while for the "feeding response" of the snake to wane, they often forget & the snake gets loose. You'd be surprised how often this happens.

Also, that side cage is virtually never "heated" & depending on your home temperatures, the snake may be at temperatures that are too chilly. Even worse, when you need to handle the snake to return them to their home, they're somewhat likely to regurgitate the meal they just had, just because of the handling.

Saying that "it's always worked fine for me" truly isn't saying much. Your recent thread "Help with ticks" (see link below) tells me everything I need to know about your lack of experience, & when you lack experience, you should come here to learn but refrain from giving advice. Okay?

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...=1#post2761590

[Bogertophis]

You see it's not so much that everyone "hates an out of cage feeding"...it's just that we all know better. It's a very poor practice that causes problems.

[EL-Ziggy]

I’m not sure if folks are “hating” on out of cage feeding, the general consensus is that each keeper has to do what’s best for them and their animals, but most experienced keepers have realized it’s totally unnecessary. I agree with KMG, for those of us with larger/multiple snakes it doesn’t make any sense. I wouldn’t try to move any of my snakes that were hyped up for food either before or after they ate. That would just be asking for trouble. As far as ingesting substrate or having to remove it from their mouth, I think I’ve only done that once in 10+ years. Again, to each their own, but I wouldn’t advise anyone else to do it.

[jmcrook]

Small/medium snake owners feed in the enclosure to avoid bites/bandaids.

Giant keepers feed in the enclosure to avoid trips to the ER.

Venomous keepers feed in the enclosure to avoid trips to the morgue.


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[DatBoiAJ_]

Makes sense on the multiple snakes, with racks, but i have a 40 gal so it's not that easy, and yea she drags it around. i put some paper towels where she would be eating and she got the stuff in her mouth still. that's why i just kept to tub feeding. And i get the feeding bite and regurg, and escaping, but i'm on top of that stuff. I watch her eat, leave her in the tub for a couple mins so that it is in a good spot(Biggest part so not to regurg) and put her back and then i'm done. I keep her head pointed away, and she's in her cage again instantly.I take her out of the cage and put her in the tub to feed immediately so she sees the food and strikes at it. It works well, but i see what could and can go wrong. Also boger, I'm not trying to convince anyone why its better or anything i'm just asking why people dont like it and why i do ,with supportive evidence why i think it works better for ME. Sorry that i did something wrong again

[Bogertophis]

Makes sense on the multiple snakes, with racks, but i have a 40 gal so it's not that easy, and yea she drags it around. i put some paper towels where she would be eating and she got the stuff in her mouth still. that's why i just kept to tub feeding. And i get the feeding bite and regurg, and escaping, but i'm on top of that stuff. I watch her eat, leave her in the tub for a couple mins so that it is in a good spot(Biggest part so not to regurg) and put her back and then i'm done. I keep her head pointed away, and she's in her cage again instantly.I take her out of the cage and put her in the tub to feed immediately so she sees the food and strikes at it. It works well, but i see what could and can go wrong...

Please never feed snakes on paper towels (or any sort of cloth)- either one can become damp from the rodent & get swallowed along with the prey because the snake's teeth will easily snag it- this has happened to people before, large boids have even swallowed towels, & then needed surgery to survive, because they cannot digest it. Surgery is very expensive, very bad for the snake (even IF it's successful) and is best avoided- wouldn't you agree?

If you need to feed on some sort of "plate" so she doesn't ingest the substrate, try using a flat piece of cardboard or a plastic box lid as a "plate" in her enclosure. You could even move a few things out of the way (just for feeding) & put a large shallow plastic container IN her 40 gal. tank, & feed her in that. That would still be less disruptive than handling her or moving her to another enclosure of some kind. As far as a plastic container, you might look into either a sterilite storage box or a new kitty litter box, neither of which will set you back more than a few dollars. Just be sure you measure & make sure that what you buy will fit okay.