Quote Originally Posted by armbarvictim View Post
hey I really appreciate your help, just a couple questions to make sure I understand what your saying here.

1- I heard that it makes a snake more aggresive towards humans when you feed in its enclosure and when I got my first corn snake a while back the people on the corn snake forums were freaking out about it. I will take your advise though.

2-you want me to fill the viv itself with crumpled newspaper????? sounds interesting, what about around the water dish??

3- after another week from now or on tuesday when I was supposed to feed him?

4- I wont handle him anymore for 2 weeks, I just dont want 2 weeks to come and I go to grab him and he strikes at me and stuff.


Thanks for your help.
I am so sorry - I had gone to the bedroom before you replied. I see others have also replied with great answers, but I will also give you my responses.

1) I have ~40 ball pythons that have never fed in separate enclosures. I also keep my rat rack literally 1 step away from the snakes in the same room. I have never had one of them mistake me for food on non-feeding days. I have made the mistake of going through the tubs in the same order that I do on feeding day one day checking for something, which triggered a feed response on a big girl who came flying out at me from her tub and nailed me, but that's part of keeping snakes, and it was an error on my part for forgetting how well I'd conditioned my animals on the routines that I follow on feeding day.

But - you're going to be going into your snake's enclosure for handling, for changing water, for spot cleaning, many times during the week. There's no reason for him to think he's going to get fed every time.

You can condition him on feeding day by pre-scenting (place the holding container with the live prey on top of the enclosure for 30 mins), then tapping on one side of the enclosure like three knocks and then dropping the prey in on the opposite end of the enclosure.

With a species as inherently private and shy as a ball python, putting them in a separate feeding enclosure could rattle them enough that they won't eat. Some handle it just fine, but others don't and prefer to ambush hunt from their hides (this also protects their bodies and makes them feel more secure).

2) yes, fill the viv to the very top with crumpled newspaper. You can leave a space around the water dish, but on each side of the water dish, fill to the rim (assuming the water dish is in the middle).

3) What day of the week is going to be most convenient for you to feed? It doesn't have to be Tuesday. Pick a day of the week and give at least 1 week, and then the number of days to get to the day you choose for feeding. He's had meals at the breeders, and he's designed to some period of time without food, so he won't starve. And if he has time to build up a bit of hunger, you're more likely to have success on feeding day - although most babies, once their husbandry is correct, have amazing feed responses. Which is why I believe his refusal was either husbandry that needs to be fixed, stress from not being acclimated, and because he has no clue what f/t food is. And/or a combination of the three. Does NOT make you a bad owner, just means that you are still in the learning process, and we're here to help!

4) I don't think you'll have the problem. As you grow with your animal, you'll learn to read his body language. There's a difference in a relaxed curl of the neck from observing its surroundings and a tight, intense S curl of the neck right before a strike (either feeding or fear based).

I'd recommend when he's fed successfully for you, and you've allowed him to settle, just take the lid off, have a roll of paper towels, so that you can just lightly touch him on his head if you fear he's in strike mood (this snaps him out of the instinctive response) and just pick him right on up.

You're going to do fine and he'll no longer be your damn bp! (sorry, I had to kid you about that!)