Ball Python thinks I'm food now ;-;

[Bogertophis]

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Personally, I do use a feeding tank and always have. It's just a small kritter keeper that I bought and has a paper towel lining the bottom. I do this because I use coconut fiber as a substrate and there are a lot of substrates that are bad if your ball python eats them. I've heard horror stories of ball pythons getting wood chips stuck in their mouth. (Ouch!). My ball python has never regurgitated his food and he's a plump healthy boy! He also has only turned up his nose at food once. (I found out if I don't wiggle his food, he doesn't want it. He eats frozen and won't touch it if it isn't wiggled. The time he wouldn't eat was after I first got him and didn't wiggle his food.)

I also like that he knows that the kritter keeper means eating. It means he knows that the tank opening or me being near it does not necessarily mean food so he never gets ready to eat when I open his tank.

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We do NOT recommend moving a snake to another container to feed them. I'm glad your snake is still eating this way, but for many shy snakes, the handling needed to take them out & put them elsewhere is enough to cause them to refuse all food, making this advice very unhelpful.

That "other enclosure" is not likely to have the proper warmth, privacy & security that the snake's original home does either. Please think carefully about that, because snakes may not eat right away- they get chilled, & so does their food (BPs look for life-like warmth, which fades quickly when feeding f/t)- and they become afraid in less-than-familiar territory, because they rely on their instincts to survive, & in the wild, many things prey on ball pythons, especially when they're pre-occupied with eating. That's why BPs are "ambush predators" that feed most confidently at night, in their own familiar space (often peeking out of their hide, & not when out in the open, moving around their home).

Another problem is that while waiting for a slow-eater to finish, owners get pre-occupied elsewhere, & when they remember to return & check on their snake, they find it has popped the top off & has escaped. Snakes are MUCH better at "hide & seek" than we are, & they're likely to get injured when loose in our houses. Again, feeding in a side cage is a BAD idea.

Substrate is easy to deal with (to prevent our snakes from getting a mouth-full): put a "plate" of some kind down first, before offering their meal. It can be a piece of cardboard, or a plastic box top or even a real plate, but just don't use anything like paper towels or cloth, because their teeth can catch on it, or the dampness of the rodent can make it stick to the rodent & it gets swallowed along with the meal. THEN your snake will likely need surgery to survive, because they cannot digest such things, & the blockage can be fatal.

There are plenty of ways to signal our snakes that we're not incoming prey when handling or cleaning is needed.- BPs are also not very inclined to bite in the first place- so moving them to eat elsewhere is never the best practice.

For many snakes, you're also more likely to get BIT while moving them to feed in another container, either beforehand (when they're hungry) or afterwards (since many snakes stay pumped up & ready to grab anything "warm & wiggling" like your hands- "Ooops!"- for hours or even longer than a day+ after they eat.)

So please consider feeding your snake where they live...ONLY.