All of mine are fed in their tubs, and I do not generally get bit on a non-feeding day. There are babies here that would rather bite me than look at me, so they don't count. I can reach in anytime on a non-feeding day and will not be looked at as food.

I bring the tub of mice into the room, put it on the floor and leave it in there for a good 30 minutes. When I come back, snakes are usually in their hides or cruising around the tub. I then feed everyone in the same order until I'm done. Even if I have skipped a week, this routine gets them into feed mode.

Josh, what he is saying is that the snakes smell food, they associate the smell of food with eating. They aren't associating the tub with eating. You could set them on the floor with a towel that smelled like rodent, and they would go into feed mode.

Smell of rodent = Dinner time!
A bare tub that smells nothing of food doesn't equal dinner time.
A tub with a towel scented with rodent = dinner time!

Getting the picture? They are not associating being put in a tub as feeding time, they are associating the smell of food with feeding time. If you put them in a bare tub to clean their enclosure, how are they going to react? None of mine could care less.

Also, I am not about to handle any of my snakes on a feeding day if the smell of mouse is in the air. I will get bit and constricted as fast as I can blink. I am also not about to handle ANY of them after they've had a meal, as they are still in feed mode. It doesn't make sense to leave them in the still-rodent-smelling tub for an hour to calm down then have to go pick them up, stressing them out. They could already be in their own enclosure, starting to calm down, find a safe spot to rest and digest.

To me, there isn't ANY reason to move the snake other than to stress them out and have the possibility for a regurge. Just not worth the risk to me, and it's not worth it for me to get the raining hell of bites..

Thanks though!