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force feeding?

Tata
01-20-2010, 12:31 PM
Hey there, I have a question I hope it makes any sense...

My corn is usually very quiet during the day, she is always hidden under her "stone house"... My question is...is it okay to take her out of her hide to feed her? or should I just wait for her to come out? If I wave the food do you think she can smell it and leave her hide for herself?

Thanx so much :eats02:

wade
01-20-2010, 12:39 PM
You will get a lot of comments from people who don’t read your whole post. Force feeding is something different than what you are asking.

Yes it is ok to take the snake out of his hide to feed him. That won’t matter at all. Or you can just lay the mouse in front of the hide and let the snake come out to get it on his own. Either way is just fine.

snakewispera snr
01-20-2010, 12:42 PM
You will get a lot of comments from people who don’t read your whole post. Force feeding is something different than what you are asking.

Yes it is ok to take the snake out of his hide to feed him. That won’t matter at all. Or you can just lay the mouse in front of the hide and let the snake come out to get it on his own. Either way is just fine.
What he said....
Yes it's ok to do either and yes people will get the wrong end of the stick from that title.... LOL

crackerhead
01-20-2010, 12:43 PM
It's actually best to NOT feed a snake in it's home. This way they don't associate the opening of their cage as a feeding time, hence mistaking your hand as food. Placing you corn in a feeding bin or for hatchlings a deli cup, helps them focus on the task at hand. Hatchlings can sometimes be a little clueless when it comes to finding food in a big enclosure. I also try to feed baby snakes only at night which would be their natural time to feed. My adults don't seem to be as fussy about time of day.
BTW what you described would not be considered "force feeding" in the snake world. Force feeding is far more traumatic and involves forceable pushing food down a non-feeding animals throat. Always viewed as a method of last resort.
Terri

Sorry I don't type as fast as the previous posters! LOL

Tata
01-20-2010, 12:47 PM
Mmmm...ok then, I guess I was making unecessary problems...:eats02: so can you tell me what is force feeding and when should we do it? is it only for baby corns?

Tata
01-20-2010, 12:50 PM
It's actually best to NOT feed a snake in it's home. This way they don't associate the opening of their cage as a feeding time, hence mistaking your hand as food. [/I]

Yes, that's actually why I had this doubt. I want to create some kind of routine so she knows when is feeding time and when is not. I usually take her out of her hide when I want to play a bit and I don't think it's a good idea to do that as well when trying to feed her. You suggested a feeding bin..can you be a little more specific? For instance, should I take her out of her hide and put her in a bin so I can feed her, is that it?

crackerhead
01-20-2010, 12:52 PM
Force feeding is only done when an animal is sick and not eating on their own. It is more common in hatchlings simply because they are a more fragile bunch. You really should never have to resort to this if you animal is healthy and eating on its own. So put it out of your mind and enjoy you pet.
Terri

wade
01-20-2010, 12:56 PM
Yes, what Terri is saying is to take the snake out of it's cage and put it in a separate bin that is used only for feeding. Put the snake and mouse in the feeding bin and secure the lid. Come back after the snake has eaten and put it back in it's home.

Many people think this is necessary, I don't. You decide for yourself.

crackerhead
01-20-2010, 12:57 PM
I put hatchlings in deli cups to feed them. I thaw the pinks, put them in the cup and then take the hatchlings out of their homes and put them in the cup sealing the lid after them. The cup then goes back in the bin and is not checked again until the next morning. If the animal has eaten, great. I simple open the deli cup lid and leave the hatchling to leave the cup of its own accord. If it hasn't eaten, I remove the pink and discard it. The hatchling is then released back into its home and I try feeding again in a couple of days. I choose not to even try to feed snakes in shed because it usually results in a wasted pink, either due to refusal or subsequent regurge.
Terri

Tata
01-20-2010, 12:58 PM
Yes but if she knows that everytime I take her out she can either go to the feeding bin or not would that prevent her from biting me? :o

wade
01-20-2010, 01:02 PM
Maybe.......

crackerhead
01-20-2010, 01:02 PM
Many people think this is necessary, I don't. You decide for yourself.

I agree with Wade that it is not necessary and I only do it for hatchlings. Adults get fed in their bin. I always recommend it for new owners though. Ritual and routine help a lot in the early days of ownership. I do have some snakes that will not eat outside of their bin because they are so skittish but that is rare. Keep in mind there are many ways to do any given task; not necessarily right or wrong. Find what works for you and go with it. As long as the snake eats and thrives you are good!
Terri

Tata
01-20-2010, 01:06 PM
well right now my snake is a youngster so I'm just trying to settle some kind of routine, Mmy worries are concerned to the future, when she gets bigger, I'm afraid she won't know wether is time to eat or to play ...

wade
01-20-2010, 01:10 PM
She will learn. Don't worry about it. She will learn your routine.

Tata
01-20-2010, 01:13 PM
and the time of the feeding, is it better to do it at night (when she is more active) or in the morning? does it make any difference?

Nanci
01-20-2010, 01:23 PM
Mostly, baby snakes bite because they are terrified. If you pick up a baby snake and it is tail-rattling, striking and/or musking, it is afraid of you. After some amount of handling, little for some, more for others, it will realize you aren't going to harm it, and cease those defenses.

Your baby snake, and uncommonly, adult snake, may try to eat you. In these cases the snake doesn't strike, but just opens its mouth, bites you, and tries to swallow. The snake isn't aggressive, it is hungry. Make sure you don't smell like prey before handling. You may need to review how often/what size you are feeding to make sure the snake isn't chronically hungry.

Uncommonly with cornsnakes, an adult may not have an easy-going temperament. The snake may not be afraid of you, but may just wish to be left alone. Although it is rare, some adult snakes may object to being removed from their comfortable surroundings and subjected to handling. Most often, these snakes just object, with tail-rattling, musking or even a strike, as they are being removed from their vivs and will calm down and allow themselves to be handled once they are out. Every once in a while a snake is persistantly "cranky" and no amount of gentle handling will get this snake to give up its objection to being taken out. Fortunately with cornsnakes, this is very rare.

I like to feed my snakes outside their vivs. This gives me a chance to clean the viv and wash the waterbowl without having to worry about where the snake is. It allows me to see, instantly, if the snake has eaten or not. Although people come up with many "solutions" to keeping the snake from ingesting aspen accidentally in the viv, inevitably these methods fail. Unless you watch the snake eat, you do not know if he has eaten the prey or simply buried it. You don't know if your snake has ingested any foreign material with the prey. And, only yesterday, I had to remove a snake's tail from its own mouth, where it had become stuck on teeth and the snake would have continued to swallow the tail until...Well, there just couldn't be a good outcome from that. If you dumped a mouse in with the snake and just left, you have lost all control of the situation.

You also have a structured time to weigh your snake. Not everyone believes this is important, but if a problem develops, with regularly-recorded weights, you have data to show a vet. You _know_ if your baby is growing, or not. You _know_ if your hunger-striking snake is losing weight, or not. Obviously people with hundreds or thousands of snakes have to cut corners somewhere. But if you only have one, or 50, pampered pets, you certainly do have the time.

Nanci
01-20-2010, 01:27 PM
and the time of the feeding, is it better to do it at night (when she is more active) or in the morning? does it make any difference?

You have the best chance of a successful feeding if you do it when the snake is naturally active. For cornsnakes, this is at dusk or dawn. Most cornsnakes would probably happily eat at any time. You'd do best to feed your baby in the evening until she is a steady, reliable feeder, then you can try earlier in the day if you'd like.

To answer a question from above, snakes know, somehow, that it's feeding time. As soon as I start setting out feeding containers, thawing mice, my snakes all appear out of nowhere and hover around the fronts of their vivs to make sure they are not forgotten! I don't know how they know.

Tata
01-20-2010, 01:33 PM
Nanci! You were great! Thank you millions :cheers: I'm sure going to use your advices guys!

nlt71
01-24-2010, 02:54 AM
I also feed all of my snakes in a separate container -- babies and adults. Since I have quite a few, it gives me a chance to hold each one and check their cage. I also don't risk them eating their substrate. I have a couple of snakes I got as adults and they are a little snappy when I put my hand in the cage - -I suspect they were fed either live or in their viv (or both). I use the sterlite containers as feeding containers (or deli cups for the babies). I figure they will learn to associate the sterlites with eating and not my hand.

Teddy Roosevelt
01-24-2010, 02:56 AM
You have the best chance of a successful feeding if you do it when the snake is naturally active. For cornsnakes, this is at dusk or dawn. Most cornsnakes would probably happily eat at any time. You'd do best to feed your baby in the evening until she is a steady, reliable feeder, then you can try earlier in the day if you'd like.

To answer a question from above, snakes know, somehow, that it's feeding time. As soon as I start setting out feeding containers, thawing mice, my snakes all appear out of nowhere and hover around the fronts of their vivs to make sure they are not forgotten! I don't know how they know.
That is ADORABLE, please take a vid of this for me sometime, since I probably won't experience it with such a small number of snakies.