feeding in the tank

bigmoe192 · 03-15-13, 10:54 AM

Hello I'm new to feeding, and will be feeding my bp for the first time later. Is it ok to feed them in their tank? And I'm going to try and feed him a live rat pup.

Mark Taylor · 03-15-13, 11:06 AM

Imop feeding in their enclosure is the way to do it. On the other hand live is not my preferred way F/T is just as healthy and less danger.

bigmoe192 · 03-15-13, 11:18 AM

What are the dangers in feeding live?

stephanbakir · 03-15-13, 11:20 AM

poison123 · 03-15-13, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephanbakir

This really only happens when somebody leaves food in a cage with a snake that doesn't wanna eat. To me that snake looks a bit thin which makes me believe it didnt wanna eat. It could just be the pic.

Feeding live to a healthy and alert snake and that won't happen. Though i do agree about not leaving food in an enclosure unsupervised unless its a harmless pinky.

Squirtle · 03-15-13, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poison123

This really only happens when somebody leaves food in a cage with a snake that doesn't wanna eat. To me that snake looks a bit thin which makes me believe it didnt wanna eat. It could just be the pic.

Feeding live to a healthy and alert snake and that won't happen. Though i do agree about not leaving food in an enclosure unsupervised unless its a harmless pinky.

Please don't say that. Anything can happen in a matter of seconds, sure, it wouldn't be as bad as the picture, but a rat can still bite your snake in its face, or even worse, bite its eye. It can happen faster than how long it'll take for you to put your hand inside the enclosure to separate them.

**Pareeeee** · 03-16-13, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephanbakir

I've seen this photo tons of times, and it still gives me the willies. Poor thing!! Why never to leave live rodents with your snake unsupervised.

My Rosy Boa will only eat live mice, I wish he'd eat f/t...anyway he's been bitten a couple times, and they can still bite while they were being squeezed to death. The one time I had to grab the mouse's jaw and un-hook its teeth from his side. It can happen very fast, and if you have to feed live, you MUST supervise and be ready to help your snake out.

Mice are nothing compared to rats for viciousness. My cousin who's a farmer told me the rats in his barn sometimes kill full grown ducks...

**Aaron_S** · 03-16-13, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pareeeee

...Mice are nothing compared to rats for viciousness. My cousin who's a farmer told me the rats in his barn sometimes kill full grown ducks...

Actually from my experience it's the opposite in captivity.

Mice just suck. Rats honestly sit there in a tub and just wait to be eaten. Mice are evil little things.

I can pretty much guarantee that a mouse did that to that snake in the picture and not a rat.

KORBIN5895 · 03-16-13, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

Actually from my experience it's the opposite in captivity.

Mice just suck. Rats honestly sit there in a tub and just wait to be eaten. Mice are evil little things.

I can pretty much guarantee that a mouse did that to that snake in the picture and not a rat.

When I was breeding rodents I got bit by mice way more often than my rats. Hence why I use a paint scraper to kill rodents.

Terranaut · 03-15-13, 12:21 PM

Yup. That sums it all up right there. Its a fight to the death and sometimes the rat wins.

Mark Taylor · 03-15-13, 01:31 PM

You just put me off my dinner.

Squirtle · 03-15-13, 02:08 PM

I've always fed live to both of my snakes, have yet to have anything bad happen to either; though' I'm not encouraging it. I always have my tiny snake hook with me and as soon as the snake strikes, I locate the rats mouth and put the hook on it. I'm ALWAYS present when feeding my snakes, too. As for feeding inside the enclosure, I'd say that is the way to go. The "feeding inside the enclosure will make your animal aggressive" thing is just a myth invented by some idiot. I actually believe that feeding outside the enclosure would grant you a greater chance at getting bit than feeding inside the enclosure.

Lankyrob · 03-15-13, 02:48 PM

No problem with feeding in the enclosure. For feeding live ensure that you never leave the prey unsupervised.

Bloedig · 03-15-13, 02:53 PM

I feed F/T to both my snakes because of the convenience and the fear of the picture above. Both were on live when I got them, but converted both easily to F/T.

As for feeding in their enclosure, I think it comes down to the particular snake really. I feed my Kenyan Sand Boa in his enclosure, and he acts just as he would in nature (very cool btw). I found he doesn't care too much about eating if he is out of the enclosure. He seems too distracted and not "ready" for it. As for my Honduran Milk, I feed in a bin. He seems to do really well with this method, and he is "wiggly" enough that I actually like to hold him for a couple minutes before I transfer him to the bin and it seems to chill him down a bit.

stephanbakir · 03-15-13, 03:38 PM

I had to feed my male retic live once... he constricted it and within seconds its stomach ruptured and there was organs and crap poking out. In the seconds that that took the rat got 1 bite on my snakes face... No real damage but it shows just how fast things can happen.