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a tip for snakes that wont eat

S

stupidclauton

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the other day when i was feeding my snake i noticed somethin. the snake was at one end of his cage and i droped a live mouse in there but the snake never saw it. the mouse slowly went the opposite side of the cage and into the snakes hide box. after waiting for a few minutes and the snake never going after the mouse i decided to show it to him. i picked the snake up and set him by his hidbox. he slowly started to make his way to it and when he stuck his head in there and saw the mouse he immidently dashed in there and attacked it. i figured this might be because he was either very hungery, felt threatened my the mouse, or just didnt like him in his home. after he ate that one i gave him a few minutes b4 i fed him the other one. the secound mouse he just kinda toyed with for a while. he just kinda put his head right next to him and kept looking at him. he finly ate it after having his fun. my suggestion is that if a snake will not eat, take him out of his cage and into another room and then put a mouse or rat in his cage, in his hide box (i was feeding him fuzzies i figured they were to small to inflict any damage so make sure its not big enough to hurt ur snake) and put the snake back in the cage close to the hide box. maby when ur snake goes int he box it will react the same way mine did. i hope this helps.
 
i think he said that cuz some ppl feel that you have a greater risk of being bitten by a snake if you feed it in its cage. i feel that if you moave a snake out of its cage, which they feel is there home, to a new, strange enviroment and then confront them with a live animal, they will become stressed. but thats just my openion
 
some1 in another forum pointed out that this resembes the natural behavior of ball pythons when they go into rodent burrows and eat whats living in them
 
stupidclauton said:
i think he said that cuz some ppl feel that you have a greater risk of being bitten by a snake if you feed it in its cage.
Click to expand...

You have to reach into the cage to get the snake out anyway...right?

I never did understand that theory. If someone is worried about the animal associating reaching into the cage with feeding time, that someone is neglecting the animal in the first place. If they actually handle the animal once in a while, the animal will not be able to associate anything. Simple.

Chris
 
I'm with you there, Chris

You should be opening the cage for regular maintenance plus handling your snake, regularly. The open cage should not trigger a "feed" response unless your snake smells the food. I have 25 snakes and no problems feeding them in their cages. I can't imagine feeding day if I had to have 25 feeding cages to set-up.
Kare
 
yea, from what i can tella snake knows the difference between a mouse and a human hand.



o yea will some1 please try this and see if it will work?
 
Let's put it this way, Clayton,

When I am feeding snakes (frozen/thawed) and I am consistently drying off rodents, my hands will smell like the prey. If I have a moment where I do not use the tweezers to present the prey, I have a good chance of being bit. The snake doesn't have great eyesite, but the smell is acute. Now, if I am regularly handling my snake, not just at feeding time, it associates me with the cage being opened. It is not conditioned to think that food will be presented everytime the cage is opened.

Kare
 
My snakes are almost always fed in their enclosure. In the past I've had baby ball pythons that I would remove to another shoebox for feeding. Some snakes will handle very well being moved to another box to eat. It has been my experience that other snakes will actually get stressed and will not eat out of their enclosure.
 
What I was told before we bought our first snakes was the reason you should not feed your snakes in their cage was because if you use any type of bedding like aspen, or eco-earth the snake will most likely ingest some of the bedding with their food and it can stick in their bodies, or something like that. We have 3 corn snakes-no BPs, but my husband wants one. He loves them.(I told him he can get one when we are set up with a proper sized tank and armed with lots of knowledge on them and their care)
 
What I was told before we bought our first snakes was the reason you should not feed your snakes in their cage was because if you use any type of bedding like aspen, or eco-earth the snake will most likely ingest some of the bedding with their food and it can stick in their bodies, or something like that.
Click to expand...

Angie,

You are absolutely right, it is not recommended to feed on top of shavings or any other kind of substrate that the snake might ingest together with the prey. In my case I was using newspaper thus I had no problem feeding in their own enclosure.

Regards.
 
I was going to use newspapers for our snakes, but I didnt know if it was a good idea. We have had two of our snakes for a couple of months I think, and they have only eaten twice each despite being offered food every 4-5 days. I just love their breeder, she is trying to help as much as she can(Kathy Love) Would it be a good idea to replace their shaving with paper and try feeding them in their tanks? They are really small, and I have been sticking them in tiny cups where they have to contact the food, have tried cutting the pinkies, braining them, tease feeding, putting them in different spots in the cage, keeping paper around the tanks so they cannot see anything....
tonight I am going to try scenting the pinkies with dirty deer mouse bedding(thanks for sending it, Kathy!) I am waiting for my mice to have babies now. I hope they are born soon. Don't know what I will do if they won't eat the live!
 
Follow Kathy’s advice blindly! She is a well recognized expert in her field. You are very lucky to have her looking after your snakes. Good luck!

Kindly.
 
She has been good to me, what with all my stupid beginner's questions! Her phone number is permanently on speed dial! lol I just hope she doesn't get tired of all the questions!
 
I also used this trick to get my stubborn BP to eat. But I moved the hide into a different enclosure on newspaper and put her in. A python who hadn't eaten in months fed within 15 minutes on 2 rat pups.
 
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