why tongs?

[Meat Man]

I feed my snake outside of the tank, but i wa sjust wondering, whats the difference between holding a prey item with tongs and with your hand? Is it just for your benefit, so the snake does not bite your hand, or what?

[Vengeance]

it's so the snake does not associate the smell of you hand with food. If you handle the prey item before feeding it will get your scent on it. You snake will then associate you scent with food and may bite you because of it.

[HeatherK]

Tongs, hemostats, tweezers (whichever you prefer) are also used to dangle or wiggle dead prey to encourage a good feeding response. Using your hand can intimidate a snake (especially a young one) and so a thinner tool is better for that reason. Also a good way to keep your hands out of the picture with larger or more aggressive snakes.

[marisa]

Yeah what will you do when your cornsnake is maybe 5 feet long and dashing at you to get a mouse? Just let it bite ya everytime? No...that gets annoying after awhile. Tongs are the way to feed all snakes. I never use my hand.

Marisa

[Meat Man]

Well, marisa, my corn doesnt really attack lol. I put the mouse down(thawed) and he slithers up to it and just eats it, doesnt try to kill it or anything, i fed him one live pinkie once and he did the same thing. I don't know if it's just him, or if he will do it when he gets bigger.

[marisa]

Most young corns do not attack and constrict. They start this behaviour as they grow up a bit. Your snake is tiny now, do what you will, but when its quite big and very hungry you may regret never using tongs.

Aside from that, offering food with your hand constantly to a grown snake can be a feeding practice that is just asking for bites.

Marisa

[Siretsap]

It's mainly cause the temp of your hand is hotter than the temp of the prey you will give your snake, so for snakes that have heat sensor pits, you have a great risk it will strike your hand instead of the prey.

[Simon]

with all those mentioned above...
plus...
I don't like touching mice and even after washing my hands after handling mice...I don't feel too comfortable eating....lol~

[Siretsap]

lolol yeah, I think with time you developp a habbit of weashing your hand every time you touch anything. It is the same with the thongs, I touch the thongs and have to clean my hands...
lolol

but I don't mind touching the mice with my hands, I hate it when you wack them and the tail stays in your hand but the rest goes flying else where...

[Invictus]

The more agressive snakes I feed with tongs. My corns I feed all by hand. That whole thing about your scent being tranferred onto the mouse and the snake then associating your scent with food is among the silliest things I've ever heard. Sorry. Guess what... it associates your scent with YOU, and it can smell you even when you are using tongs. So no, it will not get *your* scent on the mouse. But yes, it can get the mouse's scent on *you*, which is more dangerous if you then handle another snake. It's a good practice for avoiding bites. I myself get a huge thrill out of hand feeding, and my snakes don't care one way or the other. Then again, feeding a corn is a LOT different than feeding, say... a blood python.

[Andy_G]

I used to hand feed fairly often, but I stopped. Not like I stopped for any real big reason, I use tongs most instances now because it is simply a good habit...

Invictus, what I find even more neat then hand feeding is if you are holding the snake and it strikes at the rodent and eats it while you are holding it, that's pretty cool!

[Oliverian]

Lol Simon, I eat WHILE i'm feeding the snakes. Just hope I won't one day use the wrong hand and end up chomping on a pinky...

-TammyR

[Linds]

Originally posted by Siretsap
It's mainly cause the temp of your hand is hotter than the temp of the prey you will give your snake, so for snakes that have heat sensor pits, you have a great risk it will strike your hand instead of the prey.

Corns do not have heat pits, and many other snakes do not, doesn't mean it is a good practice to be feeding without tongs. You can still quite easily take a bite.

[sapphire_moon]

I always use tongs. Just safer. Not all corns are nice when they are adults. And I don't care if it is a slender snake. I don't want one coming out of its cage at me.



Oliverian I do the same thing, I'll eat with one hand and feed the snakes with the other.

One time when I was little I had a hamburger in one hand and a turtle in the other. They were both about the same weight, and I almost bit the butt of the turtle instead of my hamburger!

[Oliverian]

Sapphire, must be a teenage girl thing. I eat like, all the time, and it doesn't gross me out if I have chunks of reptile food in the other hand. You gotta do what you gotta do!

-TammyR