Feeding! do you?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Here is the routine

Open enclosure - Drop Rat - Close Enclosure - Check back 10 minutes later - Remove Rat if not eaten.

Most of the time the rats don't even have time to touch the floor of the enclosure .

[rabernet]

Here is the routine

Open enclosure - Drop Rat - Close Enclosure - Check back 10 minutes later - Remove Rat if not eaten.

Most of the time the rats don't even have time to touch the floor of the enclosure .

Pretty much my routine as well - all live fed.

It's usually

Open drawer, drop rat - THWACK!
Open drawer, drop rat - THWACK!
and so on.

The tricky ones are the big girls that come out to greet you and would take the rat right out of your hand if you let them. Those are:

Slide drawer open, shut drawer quickly, slide drawer open, shut drawer quickly, cross self, slide drawer open, TRY to drop rat before girl grabs it, count fingers, shut drawer.

Refusals don't get offered again until their next scheduled feed (5 days for babies and juveniles, 7 days for adults).

[Matt K]

Pretty much my routine as well - all live fed.

It's usually

Open drawer, drop rat - THWACK!
Open drawer, drop rat - THWACK!
and so on.

The tricky ones are the big girls that come out to greet you and would take the rat right out of your hand if you let them. Those are:

Slide drawer open, shut drawer quickly, slide drawer open, shut drawer quickly, cross self, slide drawer open, TRY to drop rat before girl grabs it, count fingers, shut drawer.

Refusals don't get offered again until their next scheduled feed (5 days for babies and juveniles, 7 days for adults).

Haha, this made me laugh. There's nothing like getting a big female staring you square in the eye during feeding time. I find some of my snakes would rather have a go at me than the rat. Anywho--back to the question. I feed f/t. If the snake does not strike right away, I'll dangle the prey item for a while to try to entice the snake into a feeding response. If this doesn't work, I'll leave the prey item on an extra heat panel I have on the rack to keep the prey item warm, and try again in 15 or 20 minutes. If the snake strikes, drops, and doesn't show interest in finishing what it started, I'll carefully remove the rat and warm and repeat. A lot of the times my strike and drop snakes don't want to wait for the reheat, and will nab the food as I'm removing it, so I always give them another wiggle and another shot at it. I've found snakes usually won't drop more than once, haha. If the prey goes uneaten, I'll leave it in for maybe an hour or two. If it's still uneaten, it gets refrozen. I had an overnight mishap with a pinky. The thing decomposed quicker than lightning, and the liquified mouse cleanup was a little too much of a smelly hassle for me to want to chance it again, haha. For that reason I don't leave any prey overnight.

Cheers,
-Matt

[MattU]

My bp's and carpet all strike every time, but the king is a pain- gotta dangle it in front of him for a while before he'll strike. Sometimes he'll eat if I just lay it in there but not always