Handling after feeding

[Klaire]

Hi all, what's your opinion on the right time to handle after feeding? do any of you wait 48 hours or wait until they go to the loo? :)

[Sylphie]

I wait until they go to the loo, it's not nice to being all messy because they decided to take it on you... It happened once to me and I don't want to risk it unless necessary :)

[Klaire]

Ahh yes being used as the toilet, gotta love that one haha:)

[SSSSnakes]

Wait at least 24 to 48 hrs.

[EL Ziggy]

I wait 48 hours after a feeding to handle my snakes.

[Jim Smith]

I always wait at least 48 hours after feeding, but then again, I don't handle my snakes that often so it's not a big deal for me to wait that length of time.

[Minkness]

Depends on the snake I guess. I have a BP who stresses easily, so I don't hold him for 48 hrs or until I see the lump go down. Usually I like to give all of them a minimum of 24 hrs, but I have learned that some of them don't care. My carpet is extremely laid back about being handled and eating, somIncan handle her right after she swollows if I wanted to, and my female BP is about the same. Poor girl shed the day after a large meal but some got stuck on her face. I fauggt with myself to leave her since it hadn't been 24 hours yet, but I just couldn't. So, she got a soaking for about 10 mins in warm water, then wrestled with me as I worked the shed off of her head/face. Once done, she just chilled oht in the open of her tank. -shrugs-

I know they could regurge if stressed after a meal, but I think it's a smaller possibility than I have previously been led to believe. I see it more like how I feel after I ear a large meal, where I just wanna sleep and be left alone, more so than worring about the possibility of vomiting lol.

Also, if thwir bottoms look bloated I won't hold them until I see a nice steamy pile to clean up lol. I do NOT want that on me!

[Bandit]

I usually give it a couple days, however I have never had any issues with handling the day after. At work, we occasionally need to take a snake out for one reason or another the day after feeding and they never seem to mind.

I guess it's one of those things where if you can leave them alone for a couple of days, do it just for their comfort. However, it's not like they are going to stress out or vomit just because you touched them before the 48 hour mark. That being said, some snakes are more sensitive to it than others, so just get to know which snakes tolerate it and which snakes need a bit longer to digest.

[Wingbeats]

I usually wait 24 hours, but if I notice a little lump still there, then I push it to to 48. :)

I've had to do brief handling sessions after eating before, mostly due to cleaning reasons. I keep those super short - mostly just nudging them out of one hide and into another so I can clean up a poo or bloodstains. Haven't had an issue :)

[Aaron_S]

Well let's see. Feeding day is Sunday nights and cleaning day is Saturday morning so 6 days for handling. Less for checking to ensure they are good and alive.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Depends on the species and age. Baby boas/pythons get 24 hours, adult boas/pythons get 48-72 hours. My garters get 24 hours regardless of age, because of their fast metabolisms. Doesn't bite much into my handling time, because only 3 of my snakes are eating weekly. Shedding time takes up a lot more handling time, up to 3 weeks of no-handling.

I don't really worry about whether or not they've pooped, I give them that period of time to ensure they've properly digested their meal to reduce regurges. Haven't been pooped on in years (garter musking doesn't count lol).

[Tsubaki]

I barely ever handle my snakes, only the giants get taken out at least once every 2 weeks to keep them manageable. I do not handle them if they ate in the past 48 hours, i don't look at if they pooped or not. I could barely never handle Xena if i did, she likes to leave me horse sized poops containing 3 /4 rabbits. She is really good at saving it up for me, does save me some bedding though.. Zuko poops 3/4 times a week and that takes alot more cleaning work. Btw in my experience if they want to poop on you.. they'll poop on you. No matter where it has to come from, they'll squeeze Something nasty out of that butt just to make everything stink. I imagen they summon it from the deep dark corners of their intestines, reserved especially for pooping on people.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I barely ever handle my snakes, only the giants get taken out at least once every 2 weeks to keep them manageable. I do not handle them if they ate in the past 48 hours, i don't look at if they pooped or not. I could barely never handle Xena if i did, she likes to leave me horse sized poops containing 3 /4 rabbits. She is really good at saving it up for me, does save me some bedding though.. Zuko poops 3/4 times a week and that takes alot more cleaning work. Btw in my experience if they want to poop on you.. they'll poop on you. No matter where it has to come from, they'll squeeze Something nasty out of that butt just to make everything stink. I imagen they summon it from the deep dark corners of their intestines, reserved especially for pooping on people.

Ahahaha, perfect description! I'll just consider myself lucky they all save it for their enclosures. River may literally pee a river (she has relatively small poos but makes up for in gigantic waves of unending pee), but at least it's all contained and easy to clean up if she does it in her tub, I don't enjoy cleaning snake pee out of furniture....

[Tsubaki]

Neither do i, i've seen what an angry adult dwarf retic can squeeze out of an 'empty' butt when at the vet.. I am lucky to have an entire 'room' (The walls haven't been built yet, but still) dedicated to my snakes, can't Imagen a wave (/or river) like that going over my couch.. =| Blegh. Always think people sitting on their couch with a snake without any cover, are very brave or just care little about the potential stink attack.

[prairiepanda]

I normally give them 48 hours, but I have on several occasions handled them less than 24 hours after feeding with no ill effects. As others have stated, it really depends on the individual and how easily they stress.

Waiting for poop, though? My snakes poop at really random times and sometimes no poop appears between feedings, or they produce 3 poops between feedings. It varies quite a lot, so waiting it out is kind of pointless in my experience. And yes, there is definitely some poop reserve set aside specifically for making nasties on people/furniture. I have handled snakes after they very thoroughly cleaned out their intestines but they still produced a spray of nastiness out of nowhere. If there's a will, there's a way. Some snakes just really really want to poop on people.

[Minkness]

My moko pooped AND peed on me when I held him the first time at the expo....luckily I had his butt facing outward so it fell in an elegant arch of nastiness to the concrete floor, just missing a passer by lol

I knew then I had to have him XD

Oh, and so far, he hasn't pooped outside of hisbtank since I've had him, which is a good thing since he poops like a great dane >_>

[treaux]

To the OP, I've vote for waiting 48 hours at this point. That's because I just learned the hard way with my BP Munch. He's always been a bit more fearful and skittish and he had just had a good shed and ate a fuzzy rat. I took him out to show a friend the next day (this was over 24 hours at this point) just for a few minutes and he appeared scared the whole time. I tried to calm him down as best I could and let him go back into his hide. The next morning there was an amazingly stinky regurgitated fuzzy rat in the middle of his cage along with a little pile of diarrhea (and another diarrhea the next day as well). Needless to say, I felt pretty bad for making him upchuck his dinner. I cleaned his cage and have been letting him be ever since and he hasn't come out of his hide for several days.

My other BP Quorra has no fear and will come crawling out to be held even if she just ate. I feel like there's no risk of her regurgitating out of fear.

As for peeing or pooping, that's a different story. Snakes do that when they feel like it, so that's a reasonable fear. Both my BPs will eat 3-5 meals before making a poop and when it happens it's gigantic. If I notice their rear end is especially fat and it's been a while since they pooped, I usually won't handle them for very long. Haven't been pooped on yet. Peed on, yes.

[prairiepanda]

Sometimes I can tell that a snake's butt is loaded, and I find it helps to put them in a tub of water(or just the tail, if they don't like baths) and that gets them to poop. That eliminates the chance of accidental poops, even though it won't stop intentional poop attacks.