Just curious

[EL-Ziggy]

What time of the day or evening do y’all normally feed your snakes? I typically feed late at night, but I tried something different this time. I thawed my feeders overnight and fed the snakes this morning. I think I’ll do this more often.

[Bogertophis]

Mostly I do what's convenient* for me, since most of my snakes are & have been very "open-minded" about meal-times. *Over the many years of snake-keeping, this has most often been evening hours, but afternoons also worked fine. It can depend on what you're keeping though- some snakes are diurnal hunters in nature (Pituophis comes to mind, as do many other colubrids) but they didn't seem to care about the time. Things like coachwhips would likely show a preference for daytime & I do remember feeding mine in the afternoons. Many snakes prefer night hunting, at least when temperatures are conducive. I've kept many kinds of rat & king snakes & they don't care; Trans Pecos rat snakes are definitely nocturnal, but all of mine happily eat any time, once I wake them up. Rosy boas are considered crepuscular in habits, but very few of the many I raised ever cared what time dinner arrived. I suspect the snakes most likely to prefer night feedings are things like ball pythons. The large BCI I had sure didn't care, & for the snakes you're keeping, I wouldn't give it a second thought.

[EL-Ziggy]

@ Bogertophis- You’re right, the snakes certainly don’t care. I usually tap their enclosures when it’s time to eat and they’ll always come right out if they’re not already perched and waiting for food. The main perk with feeding them this morning was it was very convenient for me in the flow of my day. Usually, I wait until after dark so the feeders have been thawing all day, and just when I start to kick back and relax for the evening I remember, oh geez, I’ve got to feed the snakes, and even though it doesn’t take very long it’s usually right when I’m ready to wind down so I have to summon up one last burst of energy. This morning’s early feeding was just super easy.

[Bogertophis]

Yup, I know exactly what you mean. Your snakes are big & you really don't want to be sleepy when you're feeding them. I'm not so much of a morning person, but I can remember plenty of times feeding late night when I really didn't feel like doing it (the trick for me was not to let it get too late). And also, since your snakes are large, their prey takes a lot longer to thaw than mine did, for all my snakes except the BCI. It sounds like morning's a win for you. It's not an unnatural time for the snakes either...I think they'd mostly be hunting at night, but they're still ready at sun-up.

[Homebody]

I feed at night, but I have one small snake. My feeder (singular) defrosts in minutes. Oddly, my snake often refuses on the first attempt. So, I close him up and try again in an hour or two. That, usually, does it. I wouldn't have time to do all that in the morning.

[bcr229]

I feed in the evening as I have large snakes. A rabbit takes days to defrost in the refrigerator because bunny fur is a great insulator, and then it takes a while to warm up.

Plus if I fill the house with feeder smell in the morning my snakes will all be hungry all day, which makes cleaning enclosures challenging.

[ckuhn003]

I’ve been following this thread and honestly… I always wonder if I’m doing the right thing when it comes to feeding routines.


My first snake was a BP who was an extremely finicky eater. Everything had to be perfect — prey temp just right, room completely pitch black — or there was no chance of a successful feeding.


Fast forward several years: the BP is no longer with me, and now I have 3 boas who eat constantly. I’m still feeding at night out of habit. The two older boas are so conditioned that when the lights go off, they immediately switch into “feeding mode.” It’s great that they’re trained, but it also makes it tough to walk past the enclosure at night or feed one without the others. If you get too close, they slam the glass looking for food. It’s… startling.


Part of me wonders if switching to daytime feeding would help, but I’m worried it’ll change their daytime behavior. They’re so calm during the day — I don’t want them pacing or expecting food every time I walk by.

[Homebody]

I’ve been following this thread and honestly… I always wonder if I’m doing the right thing when it comes to feeding routines.


My first snake was a BP who was an extremely finicky eater. Everything had to be perfect — prey temp just right, room completely pitch black — or there was no chance of a successful feeding.


Fast forward several years: the BP is no longer with me, and now I have 3 boas who eat constantly. I’m still feeding at night out of habit. The two older boas are so conditioned that when the lights go off, they immediately switch into “feeding mode.” It’s great that they’re trained, but it also makes it tough to walk past the enclosure at night or feed one without the others. If you get too close, they slam the glass looking for food. It’s… startling.


Part of me wonders if switching to daytime feeding would help, but I’m worried it’ll change their daytime behavior. They’re so calm during the day — I don’t want them pacing or expecting food every time I walk by.

I'm no behaviorist, but you could try varying your feed times between night and day. That way they will no longer strongly associate light or dark with being fed. You could also try target training.

[Bogertophis]

I’ve been following this thread and honestly… I always wonder if I’m doing the right thing when it comes to feeding routines.


My first snake was a BP who was an extremely finicky eater. Everything had to be perfect — prey temp just right, room completely pitch black — or there was no chance of a successful feeding.


Fast forward several years: the BP is no longer with me, and now I have 3 boas who eat constantly. I’m still feeding at night out of habit. The two older boas are so conditioned that when the lights go off, they immediately switch into “feeding mode.” It’s great that they’re trained, but it also makes it tough to walk past the enclosure at night or feed one without the others. If you get too close, they slam the glass looking for food. It’s… startling.


Part of me wonders if switching to daytime feeding would help, but I’m worried it’ll change their daytime behavior. They’re so calm during the day — I don’t want them pacing or expecting food every time I walk by.

As Homebody suggested, you might try feeding at random times, & hope they don't end up wanting food constantly, day or night, instead of only at night. I agree it's no fun having large snakes slamming their enclosure with the slightest stimulus. The only large boa I've kept was pretty easy- she seemed to know when I was going to feed her (she probably caught the scent when I walked past, going from one to another) & never slammed the glass- maybe I was just lucky. Now & then if I see that a snake gets too keen & is ready to pounce at the wrong time, I've been known to use a light spray of plain water to let them know they misread what I'm doing & it's not dinner time ("it's just raining" lol). Never had even one bite from that BCI, but I never got in her way at feeding time, that's for sure.

[bcr229]

I've tap trained my boas and pythons, including my BRB's who simply ignore snoot boop taps and strike right past the hook, or my retics who have grabbed and wrapped the hook, using an empty paper towel tube and a bit of sharp-smelling hand sanitizer. Snakes respond very strongly to scents so I've incorporated that in my tap training, which is just an indicator that they are not getting fed.

Put a drop or two of the hand sanitizer in one end of the tub. Flatten that side of the tube and insert it into the enclosure after you've cracked open the door slightly. Blow into the other end of the tube. The scent turns off the snake's food response.

For us humans it's the equivalent of being hungry, then driving down a road that's downwind of a wastewater treatment plant. Instant hunger turn-off.