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Hand feeding?

KachineK

KachineK

New member
My baby girl, Sweetie, shed for the first time in my care last wednesday. I was so excited! Perfect shed the first time. Eye caps, tail tip, it was all there. :) That night I offered her a pinkie since she had not eaten while in blue. It was pretty small and she wolfed it down after only two minutes in her feeding box. Her belly bulge was gone by saturday, so I offered her another pinkie monday. This one was a little bigger then the one she got wednesday. I put her in her box, put the mouse in the box, and covered it as I have done before, but after twenty minutes, she did not eat it. She was curled up in the corner of the box, staring at the mouse. I grabbed my feeding tongs and did the zombie mouse dance for her thinking the movement might entice her to eat, but she acted like she was afriad of it! I finally scooped her out of her box and she crawled around on my hands for a few minutes, totally relaxed. I decided to put her back in her viv so I got her coiled around one hand and decided to take the mouse with me since I was on my way to the kitchen to dispose of it. As soon as I had it in the palm of my other hand, Sweetie spotted it, stretched across the gap between my hands, and began to swallow the mouse! My husband was horrified, but I just let her do her thing.

My question is, is it a bad thing for her to be eating out of my hands? I don't plan to encourage it, but if it is the only way she will eat, should I be worried? She has only refused to eat twice, but she was in blue and I didn't realize it at the time. Her other three feedings with me have been trouble free. Any idea why she would react to a pinkie by crawling away from it as fast as she could?

I'm a new snake mom, so just bear with me. :)

Kachine Kolgon
 
What is bad about it, is that the snake may get used to food coming from your hand and mistake your hand, when you reach in, as food. It is a good idea to feed using tongs, hemoclips or tweezers, just to be safe. Also, when the snake gets older and if it misses the food and gets your finger, it could hurt.

My opinion,

Wayne
 
That's exactly what I was thinking. I didn't intend to feed her that way and now that I think back, I should have put Sweetie away then come back for the pinkie. Kinda a duh now that I think about it.

Any idea why she would have reacted fearfully toward the pinkie when I picked it up with the tongs? Surprise that it moved? Doesn't like tongs for some reason? Just personal preference? I don't think it will be an issue really, but I'm curious.

Kachine Kolgon
 
I would also stick to feeding every 5-7 days to avoid regurges and future obesity. Usually when they don't eat it in their feeding bins its because they aren't all that hungry- though I bet it was kinda cool to have it eat in your hand.
 
I'm gonna agree and go with it was way too soon to offer her another pink. She just wasn't interested in it. She may have eaten it out of your hand out of fear maybe?
 
When I bought her, they told me at the store all the snakes were eating two pinkies in one sitting. I offered two the first two times I fed her, but she only ate one, so I have been sticking to one. I figured I would give her a few months before I tried feeding her two again.

When I fed her last wednesday the 4th, the pinkie seemed exceptionally tiny, a little bigger then half the size of the other two in the package. It left a little bump in her belly, but not much of once. The one she got yesterday was closer to the regular size.

With the exception of the feeding after her shed, she always seems to try to "hide" in the corner after I put her in the box. After a minute, she does start to explore, but if I used the tongs to get her interested in the mouse if she doesn't investigate it, she goes back to hiding in the corner. What I really wonder is does anyone else have snakes that don't like tongs for some reason?

Kachine Kolgon
 
Fortunately, none of mine have shown a fear of tongs. However, I don't have to use tongs with the 08s just yet. All I have to do is put the snake into their feeding tub with the pink already in there waiting for them. The only snakes I have to use tongs with is, ocassionally,Voldemort and my BP Ms. Sauron. Voldy will usually take the mice without having to dance it but lately he's been wanting to "play" and is really into striking right now. Ms. Sauron is a full on striker and she refuses any mouse that isn't wiggling in front of her.
 
Five days is not too short an interval for a baby snake. You don't have to use tongs, especially if it scares her. You can just put her in the container with the pink and cover it up, if she is nervous. Also, a lot of snakes get more secretive about feeding as they get older. If you find it interesting to hand feed her every once in a while, just because it is cool, it isn't going to hurt anything.
 
Nanci, your right about the five days. I read it wrong and thought she had fed on Saturday and then offered another pink on Monday. My ooops!
 
Thats the way I read it too! I just put the pink and snake in the same container and boom they eat it. If they did refuse I would wait until the next feeding and leave them be.
 
My juvenile corn eats while I hold him. I put the f/t item on a piece of newspaper, on a table top. Then I sit there and hold him above it. He looks down, moves his head and neck down and eats the food while his body sits comfortably in my hand. He's done this since the first feeding of a little pinky. I didn't know if it's ok or not to do, but it is a lot of fun. I also wonder how it's going to go when he's 4 feet long...
 
I've got an adult corn that eats fuzzie mice. He's in a viv that's hard to get him out of, so usually I start thawing his fuzzies and then knock on his door and he almost always comes out and is waiting by the time his food is ready. But sometimes he's already out, so I would just take him out and put him in his feeding bin or around my neck while his mice thawed. One night, I got the idea to just offer him a mouse while he was around my neck- see what happened. He made a mini-strike at it, which was startling, but really he just bit the head of the mouse and started swallowing. He did that for a couple feedings, and then started saying, no thanks, I'd rather not eat while I'm around your neck. So usually stuff like that is so short-lived anyway- the snake just decides it wants more privacy or less stimulation, or whatever.
 
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