Do you feed in tank?

[snakesonaplane]

I recently started feeding in her tank because she was being a picky snake and for some reason stopped taking feeders in her separate feeding box. I think it may have something to do with burst past mice, so I'll try a new box next feeding...but as far as feeding in the tank goes, she took readily three times already. Plus, eating in the hot spot lamp seemed to make her eat the meal faster, for some reason. She just gulped it down instead of taking her time...weird, but anyways...familiar environment is best environment.

[Domepiece]

Sure do.

[Homegrownscales]

Duh - not only do they have special feeding boxes with placemats, but they have hot spots of exactly 92 degrees and cools side hides of no less than 78 degrees with humidity of 60% - all in the wilds of Africa.

It's very exact and there are no deviations. Also, the animals they eat all get colonics and wheat grass enemas prior to be digested so that no plant matter, seeds, nuts, etc. can dare impact the delicate digestive systems of the wild ball pythons.

Haha rotfl! Yes skip they do. Darn it I knew I was doing something wrong! I bet someone places those little ratties on plates, lights candles, and cuts them into teeny weeny little edible peices too. Jeeze our poor little cb babies don't get that. I must bring them back to natures way!


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

[mattchibi]

Yup. I used to believe in the feeding in seperate container myth, but I now feed all my snakes in their tubs or tanks. I handle them just as frequently as I used to, and they are not at all more agressive.

[Ogre]

yes I have always fed my bp in tank and she has never had any aggresion she loves cuddling (well I think she does, because Im warm) when I read and never has any issues with eating either.

[MrLang]

I don't disagree that the risk of your animal getting impacted is probably wildly low, but just to play devil's advocate:

Isn't the goal with a captive bred, domestic pet to provide conditions that are more ideal and less risky than their natural setting? I don't think you would go out of your way to distress your pet just to let it get a little 'taste of the wild,' so why skip over a simple precaution to remove yet another variable? Isn't the goal of proper husbandry to remove as many of those natural variables as possible?

Again, I don't disagree that the risk is probably stupidly small, but is it safe to merely write it off under THAT rationale? Especially with new keepers like myself watching closely and learning from the comments of veteran members? Even merely saying 'the risk is there, but I've had a billion snakes and none have been impacted so I have no problem rolling the dice' is better than pulling the 'it happens in nature' card. Even weighing the stress of the snake over the reward would provide something a bit more tangible as a reasonable rationale. Just saying.

Side note: while there are very few animals that can 'digest' wood besides insects, it should be noted that carrying the ability to break down matter is not quite the same as 'digesting' it. This is speculation, but I'm sure 9/10 times you wouldn't even know if your snake swallowed a piece of wood. The 10th time could potentially suck, though...

[Kittycatpenut]

I used to feed Lily in a seprate tank, but then I got a pair of sand boas. She's still digesting her first meal she's had in her tank, but she has never refused a meal since I got her in October.

[Coleslaw007]

I've always fed in tub. Balls seem picky enough without stressing them right before. I'm fairly positive our pin wouldn't eat if we moved her first, especially F/T, which she's sort of eh about. We DO move our corn to different enclosure to feed but he has a STRONG feeding response. Everyone eats pretty regularly and we've never been bitten.

[Skiploder]

I don't disagree that the risk of your animal getting impacted is probably wildly low, but just to play devil's advocate:

Isn't the goal with a captive bred, domestic pet to provide conditions that are more ideal and less risky than their natural setting? I don't think you would go out of your way to distress your pet just to let it get a little 'taste of the wild,' so why skip over a simple precaution to remove yet another variable? Isn't the goal of proper husbandry to remove as many of those natural variables as possible?

Again, I don't disagree that the risk is probably stupidly small, but is it safe to merely write it off under THAT rationale? Especially with new keepers like myself watching closely and learning from the comments of veteran members? Even merely saying 'the risk is there, but I've had a billion snakes and none have been impacted so I have no problem rolling the dice' is better than pulling the 'it happens in nature' card. Even weighing the stress of the snake over the reward would provide something a bit more tangible as a reasonable rationale. Just saying.

Side note: while there are very few animals that can 'digest' wood besides insects, it should be noted that carrying the ability to break down matter is not quite the same as 'digesting' it. This is speculation, but I'm sure 9/10 times you wouldn't even know if your snake swallowed a piece of wood. The 10th time could potentially suck, though...

The risk of impaction is so low, most vets will tell you they never see a substrate induced impaction in their careers.

It's not a 1 in 10 chance, or a 1 in a 100 chance or even a 1 in 10,000 chance. It is so small it is not even measurable. I have been keeping snakes for three decades. At this point I have only 32 snakes in my collection. For 30+ years I have been feeding multiple snakes, sometime multiple prey items per feeding, all on wood substrate without an issue ever. If I take the number I have now and ASSume I am only feeding once per week and multiply that out by 30 years, that is 49,920 feedings without one problem. If you then figure that most of my snakes eat 2 or 3 prey items a week, and at some point in my life I've had in excess of 60 animals, that is in excess of 150,000 prey items fed, with the snakes ingesting wood substrate - all without an issue.

You run an infinitely greater risk of causing a stress induced regurge or throwing a picky eater off of feed by doing something as pointless as messing with the animal immediately before and after feeding it.

If the idea is to provide a superior environment, why advocate or practice a husbandry tactic that induces stress during feeding?

When the most common issue we see with ball python owners is that their snakes refuse to feed, why in heck would anyone advocate practicing something that would make the problem worse?

[satomi325]

Isn't the goal with a captive bred, domestic pet to provide conditions that are more ideal and less risky than their natural setting?

Skiploder pretty much nailed it. And I would like to point out that balls are not domesticated. Tame yes, domestic, no. But I do agree that as owners, we should provide ideal, less risky conditions. That said, I don't think wood substrate adds to that risk. Of course there are exceptions, but in general, I don't think it's bad.