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

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.

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.

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.

DeesBalls · 03-15-13, 04:42 PM

WHen i fed live, i did in tank, and i waited till the snake had 1/2 the rat ingested before i would even stop looking at the tank. I had a small hammer, and tongs ready at moments notice incase antyhing bad happend, or if the snake had a bad strike an the rat could bite the snake, i would either hold its mouth shut with tongs, keep the mouth away, of bop the rat on the head (which never had to).

just please do NOT leave the rat alone with the snake, a rat can easily hurt a snake if not watched properly..

but yea, in cage is the only way i think.

KORBIN5895 · 03-15-13, 05:10 PM

I have boa that has a damaged eye from a love feeding. It happened before I got her.

valid · 03-15-13, 05:29 PM

A love feeding ? XD that must have been pretty intense. ( I assume you mean live )

Jokes aside - I fed my king live for 17 years. Never had any problems. I found that breeding myself saved me a lot of money and hastle. I would never leave unattended as the others have pointed out.