handling after feeding

[Lrptls]

i feed most of my snakes out of their enclosure (only one eats in hers cause shes so big i have no place to put her) i just put them in kritter keepers or empy 10 gallons to feed them. after they are done swallowing and starting to move around the cage i carefully pick them up and put them back in their regular cage. i was reading on clay english's red tail boa website, he sais to wait an hour after they eat then put them back in their regular cage. does any one wait that long? i dont see why you would have to other than worrying about the snake regurging but im only holding the snake for seconds.

[Auskan]

I don't wait. As soon as they're done swallowing and its all the way to the stomach, I pick them up and put them back in their regular enclosure. I've never had one regurg afterwards for this reason (had a couple of regurges when the meal was too big).

[Linds]

Why do you feed them all in seperate enclosures?

[C.m.pyrrhus]

Why do you feed them all in seperate enclosures?


I feed my boas separately, as they are housed together. I use newspaper as their substrate, so one of the boas will remain in the cage and the other I place in a large Rubbermaid to feed. Whenever I come back into the room, and both have eaten, I place the one back into the cage. I have never had problems with moving them right away. I also take a simple grab of their bodies and move them carefully. I also would suggest feeding them in a separate feeding area if you are using a loose substrate, such as bark, aspen, etc. Some boas do have feeding problems, so feeding in a seperate feeding container may get better results also.

[Lrptls]

i do so my snakes wont learn that they eat in their cage and will reduce the chance of me geting bit.

[C.m.pyrrhus]

i do so my snakes wont learn that they eat in their cage and will reduce the chance of me geting bit.


I think you will find this to be a bit absurd in fact after much time. I feed several animals within their cages. The only snake bite I have received of my captive snakes was by my female boa, and it was mainly a "I am cranky and leave me alone" bite. Otherwise, I have never seen what would be a learning curve to this myth. I am sure you also take time handling your snakes and cleaning cages routinely, and would be just as truthful that they learn that your coming into their cage would mean these other things as well.

I on the other hand, rarely enter my snakes cages. I only do so to clean and feed. I rarely ever handle my snakes like many other folks seem to. Of any person, I believe I would have a high risk of receiving a feeding response bite if this was in fact true, and again will say I have never seen anything to lead me to believe that this is a proven fact. I think there are several other factors that have been proven that lead to snake bites like described here, and this simply seems to be the fastest reasoning most folks jump on.

[HetForHuman]

Originally posted by Lrptls
i do so my snakes wont learn that they eat in their cage and will reduce the chance of me geting bit.


i feed all my snakes in their enclosures now, and can reach right in and grab them anytime....

But i do have a couple that can be pissy every once and awhile, so that is why i bought a snake hook. They work wonders.....

All i do is if the snake is being pissy, i grab the hook and just gently pull the snake a little way out of the enclosure, and then just grab the back end of the snake with my hand and everything is good.

It seems once they are a little out of the cage everything is cool with them..

[rwg]

One of my snakes I move from the feeding enclosure to "home" even before she finishes swallowing. As soon as the back legs are in her mouth I move her. She (cal king) as a very strong feeding response so I move her before her mouth is empty. :) My bull I usually give 15 minutes or so to otherwise he's really defensive. The corn doesn't seem to care what we do or dont do although she's off feed at the moment. We typically feed her on the table or on the floor, so of course we put her back immediately. The CRB we're fostering gets force-fed so the question is moot. I have never waited an hour for any of them.

rg

[Linds]

Feeding reflex bites are by the snakes mistaken identity because something triggers it (ie smell, warmth, movement), not by association with their surroundings. It is simply a myth that they will develop behavioural problems as a result of being fed in their enclosure, and there is virtually no proof to back up any of it, all the while there is ample evidence it has no influence. If you are worried about being bitten... you are much more likely to be bit feeding in seperate enclosures than you are feeding inside enclosure. Handling a snake in feeding mode with the smell of rodent in the air is a recipe for a bite, and a very dangerous practice with larger snakes :blowup:

[Lrptls]

i think after reading all your posts i'm going to go back to what i use to do a long time ago and just start feeding in the snake's cages. i see every ones points now, i never really gave it too much thought but now i see it doesn't matter where they eat you can still get bit. thanks for the help every one

[Auskan]

Originally posted by Linds
Why do you feed them all in seperate enclosures?

I feed most of mine in the enclosure as they are on paper towel. I have a couple that are on aspen, so I feed them in a separate container to avoid substrate ingestion.

[Linds]

Originally posted by Auskan
I have a couple that are on aspen, so I feed them in a separate container to avoid substrate ingestion.

I have a few that I tried out on Beta Chip (and will be switching back to Carefresh), I just put a piece of paper towel or newspaper down to in the enclosure to prevent any substrate ingestion.

[MouseKilla]

In my experience feeding response bites only occur at feeding time. I tend to think that smell is the trigger, movement and heat help track food down but the smell switches them into that feeding mode. If you don't handle the snake immediately before, during or immediately after feeding (this means feeding time for other snakes you may have too) you should never get a feeding response bite.

Don't smell like food and you won't be treated like food.