My corn feeds like a cat

[Ayidah]

I have a young corn snake, around 2-3 years old or so, who is in a viv with coconut shreds bedding. I did not want to feed her in her viv by fear she would ingest some of her bedding and bite me when I would put my hand in to pick her up. So, for 4 months, I would take her out to a big feeding tub with a thawed fuzzy mouse in a small food bowl in it (easier to wash a bowl than a big tub). But then, it would always be quite stressing to pick her up after she ate: she would rattle, strike, and try her best not to be put back inside her viv. She would not do these things after a normal handling session.

So, one evening, I waited for her to be back in her hide, napping, and put the food bowl with the thawed mouse and, 1 hour later, the mouse was gone. Because she does not actually get to see me opening the viv to put the mouse in, she does not associate my hand or the vibrations linked to me opening her viv with food. I have still not been striked at when picking her up since I started feeding her that way.

I am so excited to have discovered this new very convenient way to feed my snake, I thought I would share it. It is especially great if you have friends snake-sitting while you are away and would rather not have them take your snake out or get bitten.

Does your snake also eat like that? I am curious if other corn caretakers do the same.

 

[smigon]

I personally like to witness that my snakes have it in their mouths and are eating them, so while I weigh them and inspect them I put a mouse on a plastic lid and put the lid in the viv. I then put the snake back in, smaller ones directed at the mouse nose until they catch onto the idea, but I can see them strike at the food. This tells me that they are hungry and if they ate the whole mouse.

My older ones get put back in the viv and I dangle an adult mouse by the tail and dance it around near them. Once they strike and start to coil, I hold on and give a few gentle tugs as if the mouse were still alive, then I drop it. This also helps if they are in blue but not showing it, they will smell or even strike the mouse then go away without eating, this tells me something is up, probably in blue.

 

[Ayidah]

Interesting ritual of feeding her as they get back in the viv from a handling session. I am lucky that my snake is a Normal and has very obvious eye and skin colour changes when she is in blue. I would then wait for her to shed before feeding her again. She also has clear behavioural changes when she is hungry (on hotter days, I would have to feed her more often because she shows signs of hunger only 3 days after her previous feed and poop). I actually usually get to see her "sneek" on the food bowl, smell the mouse and then eat it. So far, I have never have left a mouse in her feeding bowl to then see it uneaten after 1 hour.

I have "played" with the mouse to make her strike at it a few times in the past, but then she would be more aggressive in general and it was not fun trying to take her out of her viv. When I adopted her, the person that gave her away did so because she was too aggressive and was striking at her all the time...

 

[Chip]

I have snakes with strong "kill" responses that are very, very gentle and others that are very shy about eating that will readily bite. There is no evidence that feeding outside the viv will make your snake less likely to bite when you handle it. http://arbreptiles.com/lastword/snakefeeding.shtml

 

[smigon]

I have snakes with strong "kill" responses that are very, very gentle and others that are very shy about eating that will readily bite. There is no evidence that feeding outside the viv will make your snake less likely to bite when you handle it. http://arbreptiles.com/lastword/snakefeeding.shtml

Oh, I totally agree with you. My biggest 1000g (yes, we hit the mark tonight) boy is a sweetheart and loves to be actually petted in the tank, held anytime, not expecting (but probably hoping!) to always be fed, is SO gentle and actually nuzzles my ear! When I do feed him I do the zombie mouse dance and he attacks it with such fury and strength it is hard to believe he is the same guy who was around my neck 30 seconds before.

And one of my adult females is a terror when you try to hold her, she is everywhere and wiggly and STRONG and does strike once in a while if you come at her face, she scares the bejeezus out of inexperienced snake people. But when I put her in the tank and dance the mouse to her, she attacks it, waits until I put the top back on and drops the mouse and hides in her warm hide waiting for the light to go out, then she goes and retrieves the mouse and retreats really fast to the hide to eat. Not so scary NOW, are ya, lady!

 

[blue roses]

I found when i put gracie in her feeding tub all she tries to do is jump out. When i say jump i'm not kidding, she leaps at the top so i must race to get her lid on. After she eats, she's on fuzzys now, she still tries to leap out. Recently i started to put her dinner on a large lipped plastic plate and when she was resting slip it into her viv. She will smell around the plate, find it and thengentlly take it coil up on the center of the plate and eat her dinner like the little lady she should be, and she never leaves the plate till its licked clean. She always looks for more, even though her dinner leaves a nice lump. I am thinking of changing her name to miss piggy.