So.. Feeding in vs out of the enclosure?

[artgecko]

Usually, the reason people give for feeding out of the enclosure is supposed cage aggression (i.e. animal thinks anything coming into the cage is food). Many people have disproven this through experience over time (i.e. feed in the enclosure and animal is fine with handling, etc.).

The main reasons given for not feeding outside the enclosure are that the animal will be in food mode and thus more likely to strike you when you attempt to move it back and that moving the animal so soon after feeding could cause regurg, etc.

In the end it is up to you and your personal preference.

I think the method you use for getting the animals back into their enclosures (leaving them in the tub and allowing them to crawl out) would negate any regurg concerns and would also limit the chance of them striking at you (since they will be in the tub).

I personally have done both. When I first started out, I fed my kenyan sand boa and hognose in tubs, waited 20 minutes, then moved back into their enclosures. As I got more snakes, this became tedious and I had a couple that became finicky about being moved and would refuse to eat in their tubs. Due to that, I switched to feeding in their enclosures and have had not issues with impaction or cage aggression with all 10 of my snakes (boas, BPs, BRB, Carpet, KSB).

If you choose to try feeding in the enclosure, one thing that might help to avoid substrate ingestion is to hold the prey well up off the ground (over the snakes' eye level and in front of them). I typically hold prey about 10" above ground level for my boas. The other thing that may help is to ensure that the prey item is dry and will not pick up substrate being wet.

I know many people feed on cardboard or tile, which I think is a good idea. Even though it did not work in your first attempt, you could give it a second go. Eco earth shouldn't be bad if only a little is ingested, so I think that is a pretty safe substrate to use as well.