i just bought a baby ball python today. the woman at the pet store told me not to feed it in its tank, but instead to take it out and feed it in a cardboard box. she said this way it wouldn't associate the tank with feeding and would not think anything, like hands, entering the tank is something to eat. i have never seen anyone do this before. i know that snakes need a certain atmosphere in order to digest and i read somewhere not to handle them while they are digesting. so my question is, if we have to feed it outside the tank how am i supposed to put it back in without disturbing the digestion?

also...the store fed it every friday. we bought the snake for my step-son and he goes back to his mom's house thursday nights for the weekend. would it be a big deal for us to change its feeding day to thursday instead of friday so that he can be here for it?