• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

What do you think?

Rainbowhues

Rainbowhues

New member
I feed all of my snakes outside of their tubs or tanks, I was talking to this person the other day who told me that they would never take their snake out of the tank to feed them as it causes too much stress for the snake. I take them out for two reasons, I do not want them to ingest any of the aspen that may get stuck on the mouse and it gives me time to clean out the tank/tub while they eat. I was wondering if this would really cause that much stress on the snake. Thanks for your input!
 
I don't have a ton of experience, but when I first got my baby corn snake, I would always move her to her small container for feeding and she would freak out and try to escape - so yes, I imagine that was somewhat stressful for her.

However, once I got her eating regularly, she now goes straight into her container without a fuss and will sit perfectly still until I bring the food. I don't think snakes are super intelligent, but I do think that she now associates that container with food because it doesn't seem to stress her in the slightest anymore.

Does that person never hold his or her snakes? I'd think that handling them would stress them out more than moving them to a feeding container.
 
I have about 80 snakes. 77 of those eat in feeding containers, for the reasons you list, plus each snake gets a hands-on inspection and weigh-in at a regular interval. Once a routine is established and the snakes know what to expect, it doesn't seem stressful to me. They sure all know when it is feeding day and line up at the fronts of their vivs.
 
All of my Corns are fed in separate feeding tanks and they're going strong. My 23 year old never seemed to have a complaint.

I did have a pair of Sinaloans that would only eat in their tanks, but I got them as adults from a breeder and they weren't used to being in a domestic environment. They were exceptionally nervous about everything - eating was just part of the problem.

I guess you could find Corns that were stressed by eating in separate tanks, but I've never come across one personally. Unless you come across a Corn with that specific issue, I wouldn't use that alone as a reason to feed in their main tank. On the other hand, plenty of folks here feed in the main tank and have no problems.

Just a matter of finding what works for both you and your Corn.
 
i put the container in my corns viv without the lid and she just goes in and helps hrself to her pinky then goes and hides for a day or 2
 
My corn really seems to enjoy "the hunt" (even after he eats he continues to hunt for an hour or two!), so I just try and pick a new place to put the f/t mouse in his vivarium for him to find-- then again, he has paper towels as substrate, if I used aspen I would probably feed him in another container too!

I think if a snake is well-adjusted they aren't stressed by eating in a container other than their vivarium. Even when Seamus was having his first night as my snake (I adopted him) and had to live in a large critter-keeper for a couple days, he was all too happy to eat for me. I think that snakes are pretty resilient, really :) Especially as adults
 
I feed mine in their cages. I used to feed them out of them when I first started getting into snakes, but when I got my boa I was told to be sure to feed him in his cage. You don't want a large snake to assume being taken out of the cage means feeding time. It never made a difference with my corns or my ball python. But since it takes the ball about 45 mins to eat, feeding in the cage was a great alternative. As far as I understand (from other reptiles) it's the young ones that have the greatest risk of impaction, older ones have larger digestive systems so particles such as aspen can pass through easier. I keep my hatchlings on paper towels though, it makes it easy for them and for me. My others all are fed in their cages, if I have a prekilled mouse I will hand it to them wherever they happen to be sitting, but if it's frozen thawed, and therefore wet, I make sure to put it on top of something so that it does not get aspen all over it. I could offer them their food in little 2.5 quart tubs, but for now what I am doing works.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top