How Harmful is Feeding off the ReptiBark

[hockey9934]

We have had our cornsnake for 13 months. I figure he is about 15 months old and about 3'. When he was younger we put him in a plastic container to eat but he got to big about 6 months ago so we just put the defrosted mouse down on him or next to him and he eats it. I was wondering if this is ok. The last time we tried to put him in a conatiner he did not like it and kept trying to get out. Any siggestions/comments are appreciated.

[sbourget]

The biggest problems with feeding on a substrate in the viv is that the snake can accidently ingest the substrate causing an impaction. also, there's teh chance that the snake will start to associate human contact with food and may accidently strike at hands as they enter the viv thinking they are food.

[Pumilio]

The reason a lot of people don't like feeding in the enclosure is because, depending on what the bedding is, the snake can eat it along with the mouse, which can cause impaction. This happened to someone I know, so now he feeds in a separate feeding tub. Actually we let him eat wherever he wants...but his snakes eat in a separate tub. :rolleyes:

[Gintha]

Treasure doesn't like eating in a plastic tub either.. so I feed him in the bathtub LOL.. I clean it first with... ummm... I forget the name ~,~ Its a pink concentrated cleaner used in vets offices and hospitals (help me out guys?! hehe) I get it free from dad's office =) Then I put Treasure in, and the mouse.. no plastic tub, and he can't escape.. well.. he CAN, but he doesn't =)

I let the tub air out for 10 mins after I clean it with the spray... doesn't really need to, but I do just to be safe =)

[mbdorfer]

At the very least you should place the meal on a paper plate or something. Repti Bark is very dusty and it stains your hands. I just wouldn't be comfortable feeding the snake anything that has come in contact with it.JMO

[cornykids]

when we first got some of our snakes, and before we knew any better, one of our snakes ingested some bark and $90 later we had some laxative and a snake that was no longer impacted...

Now we put the food on a piece of newspaper with the mouse on the paper and put that into the cages. Some of our snakes "drag" the prey away and those are the ones that we put in containers to feed but other than that, the majority of the snakes do GREAT with the piece of newspaper.

[ghosthousecorns]

If he got too big for the tub you were feeding in couldn't you just get him a bigger tub?

[hockey9934]

I used a paper plate last night. It worked pretty well but he eventually pulled it off after the mouse was half down. I'll try that for awhile.

I thought about a bigger container but since he doesnt seem to like being put inside.