Feeding by hand?

I did this the other night kind of by accident. Anyone else do this? Could this cause any problem?

PS: It was pretty cool :crazy02:

It can help reluctant feeders if their food "twitches" a bit - I had to hand-feed my old male for 6 months at one point before he'd eat on his own again.

On the other hand, hand-feeding all the time might lead to them refusing food if it's just offered normally. Hand-feeding could be a bit of a drag if you ended up having to do it all the time and it would mean that you might not be able to go on holiday and leave someone else to look aftr him.

So I guess I'd say it's OK now and again - interesting for you and the Corn doesn't seem to mind! But probably not something I' d do more than once every few feeds.

Like Bitsy said, I think every once in a while is fine, but making it normal could hamper the feedings. For instance, my leopard gecko Nyla gets fed by tongs that I have. Small yellow ones. Well I was doing this for the first three months I had her, and eventually it got to the point when I set the mealworms and tongs down in front of the cage and she went straight up to the glass looking at the tongs. Then as soon as I put the tongs in the cage she would actually snip at the bottom of the tongs for the food because she didnt want to wait. Shes a very aggressive eater. Well, the tongs were cheap and broke two weeks ago. I tried putting the mealworms in by hand... took her twice as long to even notice the mealworms were in there. She did eat and there were no problems but it does make a difference as far as their reaction to the food. What does it mean in general?

You may not know how the snake is going to react if you start feeding a different way. Will it strike early, later, after you've removed your hand? It may trigger bites, it may not. So I think the best thing to do is find one way and stick with it.

However I've never hand fed Raydin, but when I have used my hand to drop the mouse in the cage and Raydin saw it he started jutting his head up and I have almost wanted to at points cause I think it would "look cool", I guess I'm just to chicken he's gonna get my hand lol. Even though I know that corn snake bites don't hurt at all (at least smaller ones under a year old).

But as soon as I buy new tongs I'm going back to feeding both of them with those. Just have to get back to a pet store one day this weekend.

I've never fed Dante while holding him (if thats what kind of hand feeding you are talking about) but I do dangle the mouse by hand. I just make sure that I get ones with their tail intact so I have something to hold on to. It always worked fine for me and he hasn't bitten me yet, I guess I may buy some tongs if I can find any good ones but this works for now.


---Kenny

interesting, my corns at first didn't mind me feeding them by hand when I first got them, anymore they wont accept them by hand I have to pretty much drop it in the container.

Hmmm...Thanks for the replies. I guess Ill leave that as a one time thing :sidestep:

O.K., hand feeding is fun, I have to admit. I did it for awhile but it isn't recommended. I have used large tweezers for at least a year and I whole-heartedly agree that it's more beneficial to not hand feed. I have found that my "not-so-good" eaters have all become good eaters since I switched to tweezers. It didn't happen over-night though.

I believe using your hand to feed can not only be somewhat confusing to the snake, but I think it's definetly threatening to many snakes. They get excited 'cause they see a meal and smell a meal... but they also see an arm & a hand that's about 20 times the size of them. Think about it.

jmksnakes said:

...but they also see an arm & a hand that's about 20 times the size of them. Think about it.

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But they see that arm every time they are pulled out to eat, chill or be let outside...Things they enjoy. Further more reinforcing the fact that, hey this big thing is giving you food! I mean, that would apply to snakes that have been owned for some time, not just a few months or something.

I have never tried it before but i think in my book it says if you do attempt this i think you have to spread brain juice over the mouse.

Nismo that posts made no logical sense whatsoever.

Hehe, brain juice. :crazy02:

I don't believe there is a problem with hand feeding. I do it occasionally, just because I can! Of course some snakes won't tolerate it, but the bottom line is that there really isn't any harm.

"Further more reinforcing the fact that, hey this big thing is giving you food!"

Cuddles: In reference to this quote... yes, corns get excited when you're reaching in the cage no matter for any reason. And don't get me wrong, I haven't been bitten by any of my corns... but you wouldn't want them to associate an incoming hand with food 100% of the time. I just try to put myself in their place when it comes to a lot of things... I want them as happy and healthy as possible.

Here as terrible example of what I mean: You're standing in the middle of the road and you know you won't get hit. A VW Beetle heads right for you first going 60mph. Then a semi-truck does the same, at the same speed. You know you won't get hit... so you know you're safe... but don't you think you'd get more nervous when you're looking at the semi headin' at you? The corns probably know they're safe when you open their cage... but you want to be as comfortable as possible, right? Maybe I'm just an over-protective parent, right?

jmksnakes said:

Here as terrible example of what I mean: You're standing in the middle of the road and you know you won't get hit. A VW Beetle heads right for you first going 60mph. Then a semi-truck does the same, at the same speed. You know you won't get hit... so you know you're safe... but don't you think you'd get more nervous when you're looking at the semi headin' at you? The corns probably know they're safe when you open their cage... but you want to be as comfortable as possible, right?

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I agree with the part you bolded. :grin01:

We are talking about hand feeding, but then you compare it to being safe. I dont understand. But the associating the hand with food I do. However, I dont only get my snake out when Im feeding him, I bring him out for other reasons too. If he associates my hand with only feeding then, I want a smater snake. :noevil:

Oh man, Dean... is that what we call constructive critisim? You kinda' know what I mean though, right? I just wouldn't want to see someone new to corns adopt bad habits... that's all.

If you want to condition him into thinking your hand means food,fine go for it. After all it's a cornsnake,not a Gaboon.When you do get bit it won't be that big a deal!!! I use tongs myself,more not to stress the snake than anything else.

jmksnakes said:

Oh man, Dean... is that what we call constructive critisim?

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:laugh: Something like that.

You kinda' know what I mean though, right? I just wouldn't want to see someone new to corns adopt bad habits... that's all.

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Yeah, I kinda know what you mean. But I think we sometimes take things a little too far when we come up with these very general guidelines. These snakes are individuals, and their individual tolerances vary widely. I have snakes that will eat immediately under any conditions and I have others with more specific requirements. If someone said that their snake wasn't eating when they hand-feed, I'd say: use another method. But if the snake doesn't care, and the keeper accepts that their is a slightly higher risk of a bite from feeding response (not from defensiveness), I don't see a problem. I don't do it because I don't have time, and I don't like being bitten. :shrugs:

Hawkin' said:

I use tongs myself,more not to stress the snake than anything else.

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I'm beginning to think that we tend to place way too much emphasis on stress. Sure, if it's a difficult snake, stress may be a factor, but for the average snake I don't think it's an issue. I was over to Joe and Katie's the other night and hand fed most of Joe's 3 week old hatchlings. I got pooped on by one and bit by two others, but out of 19 snakes.......not too shabby!
Oh, and BTW Joe, I want that real fiesty one! :crazy02: