Feeding in the bathtub

[candyraver69]

Okay so I have read and been told that for a snake you handle, it's not a good idea to feed in it's cage. You could go to pick it up and it attacks you, etc. Also if there is more than one snake it's not a good idea to feed with another snake present.

Also I read all over that you shouldn't handle a snake right after eating because it can be aggressive.

My question is, how do you get the snake back to it's cage from the bath-tub or wherever you feed it after it's done eating? Or if anyone has a better method of feeding their tame snake how do you do it?

[infernalis]

The information you have been given is loaded with a lot of inacuarcies...

After this post has been on the board a while, you will hear from quite a few people with some genuine helpful information that will make a lot more sense. ;)


The first and foremost is - there is no such thing as a "tame" snake.

One should never forget, reptiles are wild animals of a very primitive nature. They have no emotions or feelings of affection.

Even the mellowest of reptiles can catch you off guard if you forget this.

Perfect example. - One time shortly after eating dinner I reached into the enclosure of one such sweetheart, she's so mellow and calm I just love her for it.

Problem was I had just eaten some fried chicken, not a normal snake food, so I never even thought about it.

She smelled the chicken grease on my hands, suddenly my mellow sweetheart tried to eat my hand.

The moral of the story is to always be alert, always expect the unexpected and never get complaicant...and always wash your hands with soap prior to picking up your snakes.

[Lankyrob]

I have a three foot by 2 foot plastic storage tub that i use for feeding my snakes in (except the arboreal ones - they eat from their perch). When they have finished eating i put the tub next to the viv and gently tip it - the snake is generally looking for a nice warm hide aster food se they slither back into the viv themselves.

IF you look at the theory that reaching into an animal that is fed in its cage will make it attcak because of a food response and flip it - everytime you remove a "tub" fed snake from its viv it would also get the food response...........

And on the tame snake thing - i have a corn that i have had from a young hatchling, mellow as you like - feed it in a tub and then i pick it up and put it back in the viv - has NEVER had any indication that it would strike me.

This week on its umpteenth occassion of being fed then picked up he bit me and had a full feed response on my finger - actually tried to swallow my finger! As wayne said complacency is likely to lead to a strike and i will now treat all the snakes the same at feeding time.

[candyraver69]

very good info, thanks a bunch!

[Will0W783]

I feed all my snakes in their enclosures, and have always done so. I have not noticed that this changes their demeanor at all. For the most part, all of my snakes are very docile; however, I do implement snake hooks to remove most of them from their cages. Once out, they are quite easily handled. Like infernalis said, there is no really taming a snake. They are primitive, instinct-driven creatures, and while they can adapt to frequent handling, they thrive on routine. You can always trust a snake to be a snake. They will respond the same way to the same stimuli. We as keepers tend to unmeaningly vary routines and that is when we get nailed. Never let your guard down, always wash your hands before handling any snake, and use common sense. But in my experience, feeding in the enclosure doesn't change anything.

[shaunyboy]

its the old myth of if you feed them in their tanks they associate the tank door opening with food so will bite everytime the door is opened

if you apply the same logic to feeding outside the tank then surely they would associate being taken out as getting fed so bite everytime you took them out

imo its so not true

i feed all my carpets in their tanks and none of mine are biters

every snake is different and should be judged so


re not handling after feeding
the reason you dont handle a snake for 3 days after its ate is to let it digest its meal

an undigested meal can be reguratated and that can lead to all sorts of complications to your snake

re getting a snake back in the tank after feeding

when i do feed outside the tank i just gently pick the snake up supporting the bulged part of the snake where its latest meal is sitting and place the snake back into its tank

i would not feed a snake in the bath tub

i feel the surface is too cold and also the big open escape proof space may stress the snake out causing it not to feed.

im not giving you a hard time but you used the word TAME snake

imo there are no tame snakes just snakes that will tollerate being handled more than others

cheers shaun

[infernalis]

Honestly, since my situation is so unique, I am forced to feed outside of the enclosures.

1. Garter snakes are one of the only species that you can safely house more than one in the same cage, most likely attributed to the fact that they are the most densely populated snake on the planet, so they have to share hides and den sites in nature, it's very common to flip over debris and find multiple snakes gathered together in one spot.

With that in mind, I keep several snakes per cage, this will cause a "food fight" every single time, snake "a" will see snake "b" eating and suddenly try to grab onto the same food item, the end results are never good. So I have to take them out to feed.

2. Garter snakes like food that is commonly "sticky" - chopped up fish, minnows, pinkies (a thawed out pinky will pick up substrate faster than prey with hair will.) so once again, prudence mandates that I feed them in a bare poly tub to keep substrate off the food.

I feed my Corn, BP & Pueblan milk snakes in their enclosures. They are housed all alone and eat rodents with fur, so there really is no reason for me to remove them.

My one arboreal snake eats earthworms, so I found a very effective way to feed him, I place his night crawlers in a deep dish container, then I set the container in his cage, He will drop down from his perch and consume the worms from the container.

[shaunyboy]

Honestly, since my situation is so unique, I am forced to feed outside of the enclosures.

1. Garter snakes are one of the only species that you can safely house more than one in the same cage, most likely attributed to the fact that they are the most densely populated snake on the planet, so they have to share hides and den sites in nature, it's very common to flip over debris and find multiple snakes gathered together in one spot.

With that in mind, I keep several snakes per cage, this will cause a "food fight" every single time, snake "a" will see snake "b" eating and suddenly try to grab onto the same food item, the end results are never good. So I have to take them out to feed.

2. Garter snakes like food that is commonly "sticky" - chopped up fish, minnows, pinkies (a thawed out pinky will pick up substrate faster than prey with hair will.) so once again, prudence mandates that I feed them in a bare poly tub to keep substrate off the food.

I feed my Corn, BP & Pueblan milk snakes in their enclosures. They are housed all alone and eat rodents with fur, so there really is no reason for me to remove them.

My one arboreal snake eats earthworms, so I found a very effective way to feed him, I place his night crawlers in a deep dish container, then I set the container in his cage, He will drop down from his perch and consume the worms from the container.


the few times i had to feed out the tanks were when i had 2 carpets in each of the tanks

pairs or females the same size

so i had to feed them out the tank to stop food fights mate

i hated the hassle of wrestling 4 to 6 feet snakes back into their tanks

especially since i stunk of rats at the time

i got a few sore feeding responces to my arms and hands

one of the main reasons i keep 1 snake in 1 tank now

cheers shaun

[Lankyrob]

Shauny, whatnsubstrate do you use again? Do yoi need to take precautions to stop the snake eating the substrate? I feel it would be easier to feed in their vivs but everyone goes on about impaction due to ingesting wood chip etc?

[mykee]

"Okay so I have read and been told that for a snake you handle, it's not a good idea to feed in it's cage."
Hogwash.
The information you received is incorrect.
Though there a a bunch of keepers who prefer to feed outside the enclosures (for impaction reasons mostly) their is no reason not to feed in the animals enclosure.
Snakes smell their food.
Your hands are not food, not do they smell like it.
I feed all 100+ of my ball pythons inside their enclosures.
They know when food is coming and they nail it within seconds.
They do not however, nail me when I reach in to grab my animals for cleaning when it is not feeding day and I do not smell like live or f/t rats..

[candyraver69]

Hogwash.
The information you received is incorrect.
Though there a a bunch of keepers who prefer to feed outside the enclosures (for impaction reasons mostly) their is no reason not to feed in the animals enclosure.
Snakes smell their food.
Your hands are not food, not do they smell like it.
I feed all 100+ of my ball pythons inside their enclosures.
They know when food is coming and they nail it within seconds.
They do not however, nail me when I reach in to grab my animals for cleaning when it is not feeding day and I do not smell like live or f/t rats..

pet store guys... they probably do smell like feeders all the time and probably came to the conclusion without thinking about it, huh?

[infernalis]

pet store guys...


I never trust pet store people to give advice.

I could fill a whole page with all the tales of pet shop people giving out information that ranged from inaccurate to downright made up on the fly just to make a sale.

I also know (from multiple postings on many forums) that many animals have died from the information that was given by a pet store.

If you ever see crickets in a snake display at a pet shop, run the other way fast!

On the garter forum we see people join constantly that were told to feed meal worms (insect larvae) or crickets.

That is so far off base that the snake will starve to death in the cage waiting for the proper food items, but it never happens because some imbecile clerk at a pet store sold the snake and a sack of crickets to the unknowing customer at the same time.

Please do yourself a favor and be very cautious of what pet store clerks have to say in terms of reptile care.

[kenchenzo]

i used to feed all mine out of the viv until i joined this forum.
now i feed all mine in there vivs.
i would never pick up snake that had just eaten regardless if its in a tub or not.
you soon no which snakes are ok to pick up fine if there snappy then they are likely to be all the time.
two of mine i have to hook out. (they are rescues so don't know what they had as a life before me)
as for the opening the viv & they think it's food possible if you only open it to feed them.

[infernalis]

as for the opening the viv & they think it's food possible if you only open it to feed them.


I have a group of snakes that I really need to recondition on that subject.

I never pick them up unless its feeding time, and they know it. The darn things have there mouths open expecting food every time I reach in there:eek: (I bet if they could, they would be drooling)

I get bit by them more than any other snakes here.

[kenchenzo]

i rest my case.

[candyraver69]

crickets and meal worms to a garter snake? ROFL! I haven't heard of that before.

yeah I take anything a pet store person tells me with a grain of salt these days. that's why I am here wanting to learn from the experts before a second try at snakes.

the petstore guys are the ones that sent me home with a hatchling burm (for all they knew I was 14 years old) telling me it would grow to 6' over a period of MANY years if fed a few rats the girth of it's body once a week. "just keep feeding them till she stops eating and that means she's full." a few months later I had an 8" snake with the girth of a softball...

I think that rant thread you mentioned in another post sounds like fun, I'm curious to see all the crazy stories people have about the petstore guys... I sure have a few funny ones.

[kenchenzo]

sounds like a pet store to me.

[candyraver69]

8' rather. an 8" snake the size of a softball around would be really funny looking :P

[Reptile_Reptile]

lol i was just thinking that it would be like a couch cushion/arm rest looking thing XD

[SnakeyJay]

when i brought my brb i went to a new shop and they set the lighting up and everything for me..... got home and checked it out... had to rip out the NORMAL house light fitting and replace it with a screw fit one.. On the subject of feeding in the viv, i just dry my corns rat pups on kitchen roll before feeding in his viv.